


The goddess, the horcrux and the giant snake

by Fantasticoncer



Series: The goddess, the goat and the lion [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Norse Religion & Lore
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Brother-Sister Relationships, F/M, Familiars, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Female Friendship, Fluff and Angst, Ginny Weasley Bashing, Good Malfoy Family (Harry Potter), Hermione Granger Bashing, Male-Female Friendship, Protective Remus Lupin, Protective Severus Snape, Protective Sirius Black, Ron Weasley Bashing, Sane Tom Riddle, Sassy Harry Potter, Severitus | Severus Snape is Harry Potter's Parent, Sirius Black Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:46:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 24,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22053499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fantasticoncer/pseuds/Fantasticoncer
Summary: After living in Narnia for several years, Harry and Helena have returned to England as children and have to start their second year at Hogwarts. They have to dodge Dumbledore and his cronies once again, this time including Ginny Weasley, who is convinced that she's going to be Harry's wife one day.Luckily, they have a plan to distract them....
Relationships: Harry Potter & Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter & Severus Snape, Lily Evans Potter/Severus Snape, Luna Lovegood/Harry Potter, Severus Snape & Original Female Character(s), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: The goddess, the goat and the lion [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1185539
Comments: 104
Kudos: 317





	1. Truth's out and planning

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise. 

It had been a couple of weeks since Harry and Helena Snape returned from Narnia, having been turned back into the children that they had been once more and everyone was incredibly worried about the latter. Helena was pretty much depressed, worrying herself sick about her daughter Jade, who had been left behind in Narnia and blaming herself for not staying with her.

Sirius once admitted to not fully understanding why she was feeling like this and compared the situation to the one with Severus and the twins , so Remus tried to explain it to him. "While Severus indeed missed ten years of their lives and they went through a horrible situation in that time, he's got them back now and if everything goes right, he will have them for the rest of his life. He will see them grow up and get married. He will see them start a family." He started

"Helena, on the other hand, only had her daughter for ten years and will probably never see her again. She won't be there for all those milestones. She will never see Jade get married and, as weird as it is to say it, she will never meet any grandchildren that she might get." He continued and Sirius looked down, now finally understanding the situation.

Harry's and Helena's friends came back from vacation and immediately noticed the latter's sad and almost depressed attitude. Harry just said that it was a very long story. They reluctantly conceded at that for now. Especially Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy looked at the girl in concern, their parental instincts going into overdrive at seeing the normally quick-witted girl so silent and sombre 

About a week before the twins birthday, the family invited the Malfoys, the Longbottoms and Helena's head of house Filius Flitwick to Peverell Manor. When they walked in, they were shocked to find the presumed dead professor Quirrel the. "How is this possible? We thought that you were dead." Professor Flitwick said in complete shock. "That's part of the story, but before we start, we need to ask you to trust us. Things are more complicated than you think." Harry started. 

Their guests shared a look, only the Snape family, the goblins and Sirius and Remus knew who Quirrel really was. They eventually all agreed to trust the twins and Harry nodded at Quirrel. He stood up and turned around, slowly unwinding his turban in the process. The expressions of everyone's faces when they saw the face of Tom Marvolo Riddle on the back of his head, were hilarious. 

Even Helena let out a giggle at seeing their faces, before they started to explain what Dumbledore had done to the former dark lord and what had really happened that Halloween. Augusta Longbottom pressed her hand to her chest and swore that she would do anything in her power to help them bring Dumbledore down. The Malfoys and Professor Flitwick promised the same.

The Snape family, Sirius, Remus and Tom all smiled and thanked them for their sweet and genuine promises, before the subject turned to the next school year. "Last year, we had the Philosopher's stone, which we have returned to its true owners. What are we going to do this time?" Harry asked and everyone thought for a minute. "I have an idea. Lucius, do you still have that book that I gave you?" Tom asked and Lucius immediately nodded in answer. "What book?" Helena asked in confusion.

"Remember when i told you about how I.... made a couple of very special objects when I was insane through Dumbledore's compulsion spells and potions?" Tom slowly asked, stopping himself from mentioning what they really were as he didn't want Neville and Draco to know what they were yet. "This book is one of those objects?" Helena asked in a sceptical tone. 

"My very first one. Made it when I was fifteen." Tom confirmed, much to the horror of those who knew what he was actually talking about. "Okay... so how are we doing this then?" Sirius asked to try and take his mind away from the fact that Dumbledore manipulated a fifteen year old into splitting his own soul. "I was thinking about planting it with one of his cronies." Tom suggested. 

"The youngest Weasley is starting school this year." Draco said and most people agreed that she would be the perfect choice. Helena wasn't really sure about using a young girl, but Harry came with a compromise. "Tell you what: we'll plant it with her and if she turns out to be like Fred and George, we'll go and steal it back, but if she turns out like Granger and the other Weasley, we'll let her keep it." He suggested and she agreed with that. "Okay, so we got a diary. Now what?" Remus asked.

Tom explained about the Chamber of Secrets and Slytherin's Basilisk that lived in there. "You want to free a Basilisk?!" Professor Flitwick squeaked appalled and Tom made a face. "Yes and no. I am planning to release her, but what many people don't know is that Basilisks actually have a special set of eyelids that prevent them from hurting anyone." He explained.

"With Harry being the heir of Slytherin, he can order her to use those eyelids and make sure that no one gets hurt." He continued and Filius calmed down at that. "But if nothing happens, then how are we going to tip off Dumbledore that something's going on?" Helena asked. "Maybe, we can fake the petrification of someone, but I'm not sure how yet." Tom muttered. 

Everyone thought for a minute, but seeing how no one had any idea, they decided to cross that bridge when they got there. Lucius went to get the diary and Tom put several new spells over it as it had been made while he was still under compulsions. It was still a horcrux as the time for these ritual to heal Tom was still a couple of years away, but it would alert him, Harry and Severus whenever Ginny was using it and would be unable to order the Basilisk to hurt or kill anyone in the school.

Luckily, the soul piece in the diary was willing to help. The less Harry and Helena thought about that, the better. Together, they prepared for another hectic year. Unbeknownst to the twins, the adults were also planning for their birthday, hoping to cheer them up. Summer was slowly passing and soon, they would have to face Dumbledore and his pawns again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year's eve, everybody! 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	2. A magical birthday.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Harry's and Helena's twelfth birthday at Black Island began wet for the latter. Or rather, it began with her being woken up by a wet tongue. ""PADFOOT!!!" She shouted as the big, black dog wagged his tail happily. Padfoot barked a few times as if to say "wake up! Wake up!" Helena groaned as she slowly sat upright. "Okay, okay. I'm up. Now, get out so I can change." She muttered 

Padfoot happily trotted out of the room and Helena soon heard Harry protest loudly as his immature godfather jumped on his bed while still in dog form. "At least,I have the sane one." She muttered as she got dressed. Once they were dressed, they went downstairs where the presents were waiting for them. "Happy birthday, you two." Severus greeted them and they quickly ran to hug him. "Thank you, dad." They chorused together, before starting to open their birthday presents.

They got different kinds of candy from their friends as well as several cards asking if Helena felt better and the girl was really touched by them. She still missed Jade incredibly, but she tried to live on, knowing that her daughter would want her to. Lucius and Narcissa have the twins some really nice robes and dresses, stating that as Heirs, they would have to start to look the part.

They both got a new broom, the Nimbus 2001, from Sirius and Remus, even if neither of them were really interested in joining their house team. Helena thought about maybe trying out for chaser in a later year, but not this one. Still, they thanked their godfathers with the biggest hug that they could manage. The men chuckled and hugged them back.

Tom sent them some rather interesting books from the Slytherin vault as he was still resting in Gringotts. It was decided that until they could get his body back, he would stay there for most of the time to keep his strength. Sharing a body with someone took its toll. Severus gave them new books about their favourite subjects and new clothes. Even Athena and Hedwig gave them a dead rat as a gift, but the twins gently gave them those back, saying that they appreciated the thought

Helena got her brother a nice leather bracelet that was infused with protection spells as well as a portkey back to Peverell Manor in case that they needed it. Both twins had agreed to get something for the both of them like that and for Helena's was a a simple, rope bracelet with a jade stone. Helena smiled with tears in her eyes at seeing it. She gave Harry a giant hug and he gladly hugged her back

Kreacher, Sirius' house-elf, popped in with a stack of letters for his master once they were done. At first, he had been very rude and grumpy to all of them, before Harry had found Slytherin's locket in the house that Sirius had lived in. At his master's order, a crying Kreacher had told them about how Regulus Black, Sirius' brother, had stolen it from the cave that it had been in at the cost of his own life.

They had told the elf about what had actually happened with Tom and about the compulsions that had forced him to become the creature that he had been and Kreacher had been absolutely furious that his master Regulus had died indirectly thanks to Dumbledore and his manipulations. He had quickly become friendlier to them after they had promised to get the soul piece out of it and that Dumbledore would pay for what he had done. Ever since then, he was nicer to everyone.

Sirius sighed at seeing the stack of letters, knowing what they were. "Any spells and potions, Kreacher?" He asked. Kreacher would check for compulsion spells and portions, love spells and potions and anything else that could hurt Sirius. "Kreacher found several love and compulsion spells on the letters and wrote them down here." Kreacher answered, snapping his fingers and conjuring up a piece of paper.

"Thank you, Kreacher." Sirius said and the elf bowed, before popping away. "Let's see. Marriage contract.... marriage contract.... Dumbledore..... marriage contract." Sirius muttered, flicking through the letters. As far as most people knew, he was the last of his line and a lot of witches wanted to be the new lady Black and threw mother of his heir. 

' _Too bad that I already like someone else.'_ He thought glancing at Remus for a second, before looking down again. Twelve years was a long time to think about things like this and he knew that he had a crush on his best friend. Not to mention that Harry already was his heir, so that was one problem solved. But there was no way that Remus would have feelings for him. Little did he know that a certain pair of twins had seen his looks over the course of the vacation and were planning.

In the afternoon, Harry and Helena's friends came over through the Floo for a small party. Fred and George were not invited yet, because the twins weren't sure how to send them an invitation without notifying the other Weasleys. Perhaps, the other twins themselves could figure out a way in the next school year. Narcissa had also brought a big cake with whipped cream and the children happily dug in. 

Holding a slice with a lot of whipped cream, Helena got an small idea when Sirius asked her if she was going to eat that. She walked over to Sirius and held the slice out to him. "Here you go, uncle Sirius." She said with a smile, only to push the slice in his face when he went to grab it. All the children were laughing and even the adults were chuckling at seeing his face under the whipped cream.

After the cake, they went swimming. Black Island hidden was in the Mediterranean sea, so the water was nice and warm. While swimming, Harry and Helena did their best to subtly push their godfathers together, but it didn't seem to work, so they gave up for now and just had some fun. Even Severus joined them for a while and Harry and Helena quickly splashed him as much as they could. "Oh, come here, you little brats." He playfully growled, grabbing a laughing Harry in a headlock.

The man was smiling as well, seeing his children so happy and carefree. He, Sirius and Remus literally had to teach them how to swim last year and it had paid off, although he still didn't want them to swim too far from shore and they understood. He let Harry go and simply used his magic to make a wave that splashed his laughing children. 

After a few hours, the very wet birthday boy and girl and their guests and family got out of the water to dry off in time for dinner. Kreacher and Dobby had done their next to make Harry's and Helena's favourite food and it really showed as the guests all enjoyed it. After dinner, the family spent time together for several hours, before the twins went to bed. 

Severus checked in on them after a while, after Dobby had popped in with a list of things that the goblins had confiscated. He had sighed at seeing that almost all of the things came from Dumbledore and his followers and that they had been covered with compulsion spells. They just wouldn't give up, would they? He looked at his children.No matter what, he would always protect them. He would not lose them again like he had before. He would not go through that again. 

He checked in on Harry first and saw him peacefully sleeping. He carefully walked in and kissed his son on the forehead, before sneaking out again. He checked on Helena and her head immediately lifted up from her pillow. "Dad?" She whispered and he smiled, walking in. "Hello sweetheart. Did you have fun today? " He asked and she immediately nodded.

"I did. Thanks dad." She said, before yawning. Severus chuckled, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "Go to sleep, little one." He gently ordered and she nodded, lying back down again. "Goodnight daddy." She breathed. "Goodnight sweetheart." He replied, kissing her forehead, before leaving. Sirius and Remus had gone to bed as well and he followed suit. Before long, the entire house was quiet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fluffy chapter, before we go to the bashing.
> 
> Wolfstar has actually become one of my favourite non-canon Harry Potter ships, so I'm gonna do my best to incorporate it.
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	3. Diagon Alley and planting the diary

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise

A few weeks later, they got their book lists for the upcoming year and the twins raised their eyebrows at seeing that for Defence Against the Dark Arts, they needed every book that was written by Gilderoy Lockhart. "Dad, what the hell is this about?" Helena asked, holding her list up. "First of all: language. Second of all: Dumbledore hired that buffoon to teach you this year." Severus answered after scolding her. 

The twins had read a couple of his books during Christmas break and Helena's keen eye had quickly picked up on several things that didn't make sense, including the fact that two things apparently took place at the same time but very far apart. She would have to ask the goblins to look into that later. For now, they may just be able to use the idiot and if not, the goblins most likely would find something that could get him out of Hogwarts really quick. She and Harry shared a smirk, both thinking the same thing. "What are you up to?" Severus asked suspiciously.

Both twins immediately gave him innocent looks, but he wouldn't have it. "Whatever it is, just remember..." He started, before his children joined in. "Don't get caught." They chorused together and Severus smiled at them, before ruffling their hair and going down to the dungeons to brew some potions. The twins sat closer to each other to start their planning. "If he is as big of a buffoon as we suspect, how about we make his life a bit harder?" Helena asked.

"How? We never really planned any pranks before at the Dursleys or in our first year. The Weasley twins are better in those things and we have no way of contacting them." Harry said, before noticing his sister giving him a deadpan look. "What?" He asked. "Harry, who do we live with?" She asked in return and he facepalmed at finally remembering that Remus and Sirius had been pranksters in their youth.

They stood up and went to find their godfathers. They were sitting together in the library, which was a very rare sight for Sirius. "Padfoot, Moony. Can you teach us how to prank a new teacher?" Helena asked. Sirius slowly got a big smile on his face, but Remus was sceptical. "Depends on who it is." He said. "Gilderoy Lockhart." The twins chorused and Remus thought for a minute. "Okay. That's fair enough." He conceded as Sirius laughed and whooped in joy. In the dungeon, Severus shivered at hearing it and didn't want to know why he was laughing.

A few days later, a day before Severus had to go to Hogwarts to prepare, they met up with the Malfoys and the Longbottoms to do their shopping together. They first went to get their money and they were allowed to go to the enormous Malfoy vault. "If this is the vault of Draco's family, I don't want to know how big the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Gryffindor, Peverell Le Fay and Emerys vaults are." Helena muttered to her brother and he agreed. 

Once they got out, Lucius and Narcissa went home briefly to get the diary after the goblins had told them that the Weasley family was in the Alley doing their shopping as well. Harry and Helena shared a dreading look between the two of them. To plant the diary with Ginny Weasley, they had to get close to Weasley and Granger, but hopefully, the Weasley twins would run some some interference.

Severus squeezed the shoulders of his children to remind them that he, Remus, the Malfoys and the Longbottoms were there as well. Sirius was at the manor. To distract them, Neville enthusiastically told them about this book about magical plants that he wanted to buy with his grandmother's approval as he had gotten good grades in their first year, thanks to the twins. Harry really wanted to listen, but something distracted him and he didn't know what. "Loony!" He suddenly heard a girl say and turned around to see two girls bully a younger girl. 

The bullied girl couldn't be older than eleven with blonde hair and almost silvery eyes. Harry recognised the bullying girls as Ravenclaw students a year above them and pulled on his father's sleeve. "Dad. That girl is being bullied." He said and Severus looked up, seeing it as well and stepping towards the girls. He cleared his throat and the two bullying girls jumped and whirled around with wide eyes. 

"Ms. Chang. Ms Edgecombe. If you don't want to get into detention with Filch during the first two weeks of school, I suggest that you walk on." He said calmly and the two girls quickly walked away. Harry immediately ran past his father and helped the bullied girl on her feet, asking if she was alright. "I am. Thank you, Harry." She said and Harry sighed. "It's the scar, isn't it?" He asked as the others joined them as well.

The girl giggled at his words. "No. It's your aura. I'm Luna Lovegood." She told them, holding out her hand. The jaws of the twins fell and Severus and Remus widened their eyes as they immediately recognised the name from the heritage test. Harry's soulmate was standing in front of them. Helena slowly got a big grin on her face as she enthusiastically grabbed and shook the girl's hand. "It's so nice to meet you, Luna." She said happily and meaning every word. Her brother was lucky to meet his soulmate this early. She didn't even know who hers was.

"It's nice to meet you too, Your Highness." Luna replied, before she was called by her father and said goodbye, kissing Harry's cheek and running towards the man. "What was up with you?" Draco asked, seeing his best friend still looking star-struck. Helena simply chuckled at her brother's face. "She's his soulmate. She looks nice" She explained, directing the last part to Harry and he just silently nodded. 

"How on earth do you know that already?" Draco asked. Helena explained about the heritage test at Gringotts as Lucius and Narcissa joined them again. Draco immediately looked up at his parents. "Why did we never take that test?" He asked and his parents smiled. "Because nothing's as exciting as waking up on your fifteenth birthday and see the name of the person meant for you on your wrist." Narcissa explained. 

Lucius nodded in agreement as they continued shopping and Draco reluctantly conceded for now. They continued on without much trouble, covertly looking out for any Weasleys. It wasn't until they got to the bookstore that they came across a giant crowd trying to look inside. "What in Merlin's name is going on?" Augusta asked and everyone shrugged. They soon found out that Gilderoy Lockhart was signing books and the twins groaned. First, they would have to deal with the Weasley family and now with their new teacher. 

' _Speak of the devil.'_ Harry thought at seeing the unfortunately familiar hair of the Weasley clan. The twins and their friends just went to get in line, Harry holding onto Severus and Helena holding onto Remus. There was a moment when they were near the front and Lockhart saw them while someone was taking pictures of him. "Why, if it isn't Harry and Helena Snape!" He called loudly and the entire shop got quiet. 

The photographer tried to pull the twins forwards for a picture with the blond idiot, but one glare from Severus and a growl from Remus and he cleverly backed off. "Come now, Severus. Let your children have the spotlight with me for a moment. We'll make the front page." Lockhart pleaded and Severus glared at him. "I think I know very well what _my_ children want and it's not the spotlight." He replied coldly. 

Lockhart immediately decided to tell the crowd about how he was the new teacher at Hogwarts to make up for this awkward moment. Once he was done, the Snape family bought their books and went a bit further to the front. "Harry, mate! Why didn't you tell us that you were here today? We could've picked you up and done our shopping together." A familiar voice said. The twins groaned. "No, thank you, Weasley. We didn't want to talk about quidditch the whole time. Unlike what you believe, the subject becomes boring after a while." Helena said shortly.

"Harry, Helena. Did you finish your homework? You know that you could've asked my help with it. We should meet before school so I can look it over." Granger said and Helena was tempted to knock her head against the wall repeatedly. "In case that it slipped your mind, Granger, we literally have a professor as our parent. He looked over our homework, so we don't need you for that." Harry said, seeing that his sister was close to losing her patience already.

"Well, the arrogance. Aren't you going to say anything about your children's tone?!" Molly Weasley demanded. "Why? They only stated the truth and it's not like they tried to take two children to their home on the words of someone who has no say in that." Severus says coldly, staring right into her eyes. Sirius and Remus had told him everything that had happened on the platform and he was pissed. 

"I was only doing what I thought was right." Molly huffed. "Well, you thought wrong." Severus replied. Molly huffed again, before turning to Remus. "Remus, have you met Sirius since his trial? Professor Dumbledore has been trying to reach him, but he doesn't answer any letters. We worry that Death Eaters got him." She said, sending a "subtle" look towards Severus and Lucius, who tried their best not to roll their eyes at it. "I've talked to him once. He's in a calm place where he can recover from Azkaban at his own pace." Remus said. 

It wasn't a total lie. Peverell Manor was a very calm place most of the time and Sirius was really trying to become better after what he had gone through in prison and they tried all their best to help in whatever way that they could when he wasn't at Gringotts for the mind healer. St. Mungo's was too public for now and they didn't trust Dumbledore not to try and get the records of Sirius' process That was the youngest Weasley tried to walk up to Harry.

"Hi Harry. I'm Ginny." She says, batting her eyelashes in a way that was probably supposed to be seductive, but just came off as weird. Harry was saved from answering by Lucius, who distracted the family and secretly planted the diary between Ginny's books. Seeing the small nod that Lucius gave them, Severus and Remus quickly exited the shop with the twins before they could be stopped. They would get the rest of the books later. 

They said goodbye to their friends and went home. Once home, the twins collapsed on the couch in and Sirius laughed at their reaction. "Well, at least one good thing came from this trip. Harry found his soulmate." Helena said and Sirius wanted to know everything. They told him what happened and he smiled at how starstruck Harry had been. The twins were relieved that everything had gone to plan. Now, they just needed to get to school and continue it. Easy right? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plan has begun! 
> 
> And Harry met Luna for the first time.
> 
> Next chapter will be the train ride
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	4. Back to school

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Before the twins knew it, the first of September had arrived and they had to go back to school. Summer was over and they had to go back to Dumbledore's terrain. Severus had already written them about how Dumbledore had started to suggest that he took the twins with them when he returned, no doubt looking for a way to get them closer to his pawns and away from their friends

The day before they had to go, Harry had complained about not wanting to deal with Granger and Weasley on the train and a lightbulb had turned on in Helena's head. "What if we make sure that they miss the train and get in trouble as well?" She suggested and Harry tilted his head. "How?" He asked and his sister smirked. "Dobby!" She called and the elf popped into the room. Harry's eyes went wide as he understood what his sisters plan was and a similar smirk grew on his face. 

They got up early and went to the platform with the Malfoy family. As he had promised last year, Remus was there as well. They were also accompanied by a certain big, black dog. Sirius didn't feel like making a public appearance yet and since barely anyone knew what his animagus form was, this was the perfect way to see the twins off.

As they apparated to the platform, Harry, Helena and Draco picked out a compartment to sit in and wait for their friends after saying goodbye to the adults. Padfoot was sitting at the other side of the window and was currently in a competition with Harry about who could pull the silliest face. Draco and Helena were laughing their butts off. 

Neville and Padma quickly arrived as well and laughed at what Harry was doing with the dog. They had already met Sirius during the summer and were some of the few people who knew his animagus form, so they knew exactly who that dog was. Helena stopped laughing at finally seeing the Weasley clan arrive and hoped that Dobby succeeded in his mission. She pointed them out to Sirius and he quickly stopped being silly, nodding at them and returning to the Malfoys and Remus.

The Weasley twins quickly found their compartment and went in. Suddenly getting an idea, Helena got out her new spell book and used the hiding spell to make sure that no one of Dumbledore's pawns would find them. "That spell sure is bloody handy." Harry commented. "Where did you get that book?" Fred asked. "Christmas. It's a one-of-a-kind book." Helena said deadpan. 

Harry hid his smile behind his hand as he knew that his sister was telling the truth, but not in the way that the others thought. Only Severus, Sirius and Remus knew about Narnia and the twins had decided to keep it like that for now. Helena played with her new bracelet. No matter what would happen in her life, she would never forget her daughter.

Her attention was pulled Fred and George walking out to go and see their friends, promising to return. Soon after, the door opened and a blonde girl walked in. "Hey, Luna. Come in." Helena said, smirking as her brother became red and awkward. Luna sat down and turned to Helena. "Your highness, be careful. The bumblebee, weasel and beaver want to catch the raven and snake in their nets." She said vaguely and even Helena had to think for a second to know what she meant.

Realising that she meant Dumbledore, she nodded. "Don't worry, Luna. We will be safe and careful." She said. The others just shared confused looks, except for Harry, who had figured it out as well. The train was already riding through the landscape at the moment and Harry looked out of the window. "What the bloody hell is that?" He suddenly asked. 

Everyone immediately looked out of the window to see a flying car. Narrowing her eyes, Helena swore that she could see red hair in the driver's seat. ' _They_ _couldn't_ _have waited until the adults returned?'_ She thought, hiding her smirk behind her boom as she shared a look with Harry. "It's Granger and Weasley!" Draco shouted in surprise as the car swerved over the train to the other side. 

While everyone was distracted. Harry and Helena shared a high five. The car disappeared, but the friends talked about it during the ride and they knew that they weren't the only ones as everyone had seen the car. "They're going to be in big trouble." Was all that Helena said about it, preferring to read her book. They saw the female Weasley walk by, desperately looking for something and knowing for what. Luckily for them, the spell kept them completely hidden from her

Over the course of the ride, Neville, Padma and Draco slowly got used to Luna's odd words and descriptions, having a correct feeling that she was going to be part of their group. Fred and George came by again after catching up with their friends and were promptly introduced to Luna. They were immediately enthusiastic to meet her and Luna liked them as well

Arriving at the station, Luna had to split from the group to the boats while the older children took special carriages. Helena stopped at seeing the creatures pulling the carriages. Thestrals. Horses that were only visible if you had seen death. How fitting that she would be able to see them. She shook her head and got into one of the carriages with her brother and friends. 

They stepped out of the carriages once they were at the castle and hurried inside, the cold night's air freezing them. Inside the Great Hall, they had to split up once again as Harry and Draco went to the Slytherin table, Neville to the Hufflepuff table and Helena and Padma to the Ravenclaw table. Helena looked at the Head table and frowned at not seeing their father there. 

Sharing a look with Harry, the boy shrugged in answer. He didn't know where the man was either and he didn't like the look on Dumbledore's face at not seeing Severus there. It wasn't until she sat down that a small note appeared on her plate from professor Flitwick, saying that Severus went to wait for Granger and Weasley to arrive. Calmed, Helena settled down to walt for the first years to arrive. They arrived rather soon and everyone watched as the sorting hat sang a new song.

After that, it was finally time for the new students to be sorted. When Luna's name was called, both Harry and Helena sat up in interest, wondering where she would go to. The girl was soon sorted into Ravenclaw and happily skipped down to sit next to Helena. The older girl immediately smiled at her, before looking at Harry and nodding, promising to look after her

The sorting went on like normal and there still wasn't a hint of Weasley or Granger, although the twins noticed Dumbledore and professor McGonnogal leaving the feast for a bit, before returning. They decided to just enjoy the feast and worry about the two later. "Weasel and beaver are staying." Luna said at one point and Helena simply groaned in answer. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The school year has officially begun. 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	5. A tumultuous breakfast

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

The first hiccup was in the next morning when Helena came downstairs with Padma and saw Cho Chang bully Luna and calling her Loony. She immediately walked towards the girls and grabbed Luna's hand. "Come on, Luna. Let's get breakfast." She said, giving Cho a glare as she pulled Luna towards the entrance, Padma following them. 

She really didn't like the older girl and if there was one thing that she hated after living with the Dursleys, it was bullies. It just reminded her of having to run from her fat cousin during another game of "Harry and Helena hunting" and she hated it. She suddenly realised that her daughter may be gone, but she could protect get brother's soulmate

Cho had been one of those who had been trying to suck up to her and Harry, so that she could be famous for being a friend of them. She may be a Ravenclaw, but she was no better than Weasley and Granger. Luna just smiled serenely as she was pulled along. "You didn't have to do that." She said and Helena just gave her a surprised look at hearing her words. "Of course I did, Luna. You're one of us now and I will not let anyone bully my friend." She stated as they reached the entrance of the Great Hall.

Luna smiled again as they sat down. The main story during breakfast was the flying car. It had indeed been Weasley and Granger in that car and they had been seen by seven muggles. Normally, children would've been suspended for this, if not expelled. However, since they were Dumbledore's favourites, they got off with just a detention.

Harry sat down with a sigh across from the three of them, Draco following right behind. A note appeared beside their plates, telling them that the headmaster wanted to see them after breakfast. "Here we go again." Helena muttered in pure frustration as Harry simply groaned. Padma and Draco, who remembered this from last year, just sighed. 

Professor Flitwick came by to hand out their timetables, having gotten two timetables from Severus for Harry and Draco. Helena told him about the note and he nodded, telling them that he would be there. When the mail arrived, two great things happened. One was that Weasley got an howler from his mother. Everyone could hear her scolding him for stealing the car. The twins and their friends simply smirked at hearing it, glad that Weasley at least got humiliated because of his actions. 

The second great thing was an unfamiliar owl dropping a small package with an empty looking parchment, two mirrors and a letter in front of the baffled Weasley twins. The parchment had a small note attached to it that said not to open it in public. Very interested, the red-headed twins immediately opened the letter to see what they had just gotten. Their eyes became very wide as they read the contents. 

_Dear Gred and Feorge,_

_A certain pair of very mischievous twins told us all about how you had stolen our precious map from Filch's office by simply throwing a dungbom in his face and quickly fleeing the site and that in just your first year. May we congratulate you on that brilliant manoeuvre and for stealing our map back from that old bastard ( ~~Padfoot.)~~ What? I'm just saying as it is. We would also like to congratulate you on figuring it how to use it_

_The empty parchment that has hopefully reached you with this letter, is an updated version of our map. You can search for anyone specific if you tap your wand three times against the parchment and say the person's name. The password is the same as the old one. The mirrors that are also included can be used to contact each other if you're not in the same room._

_In this way, you can prank two different places at the same time and if one of you sees a professor heading towards the other, they can warn them through the mirror. Don't tell your younger brother and Granger this, but Harry and Helena have the same kind of mirrors. If you want to contact them, just say their names in the mirror and they will answer if they can. The mirrors will only work for you, so don't worry about your younger brother stealing it. They will also be unable to see the contents of this letter_

_Make us proud, new Marauders._

_Padfoot & Moony_

The twins were shocked into silence and their friend Lee was inspecting the mirrors and parchment. "Is this what I think it is?" He asked. "A new map... from Padfoot and Moony themselves." The Weasley twins muttered, looking at Harry and Helena, who both have them winks, before resuming eating. That was when Weasley and Granger had to ruin the fun. 

"What the bloody hell is this?" Weasley asked rudely, grabbing one of the mirrors. "That's a present from my mum. It's not yours." Lee said, thinking quickly. The twins nodded in agreement. Granger scoffed. "Why on earth would she sent mirrors to you?" She asked with a sneer. "It's for a prank that we're planning and if you don't want to be the victim if it, I suggest that you quickly go away." George threatened as he took the mirror back and Weasley and Granger quickly left.

Harry and Helena had watched the twins getting their gifts with smiles on their faces. Sirius and Remus had already made another updated version of the map for them and they had convinced the men to make another one as well as mirrors for the twins as a thank you for giving Harry and Helena the old map. They had agreed and had immediately gone to work. 

The only reason that it was only delivered today was because no one would look up weird at seeing the twins getting a package. At that point, breakfast was slowly nearing its end and several students got up to prepare themselves for their first classes. Helena looked at her timetable and saw that she had a free period for now, followed by charms. 

Severus and Filius shared a look and sighed at seeing Dumbledore get up and leave the Great Hall in preparation for their upcoming meeting. They didn't like the smug look on his face as they got up as well and went to get the twins. Harry and Helena stood up, said goodbye to their friends and followed the adults. Another school year had begun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. Next chapter will probably have a time skip after the meeting to get the story going
> 
> Also, I need some help. 
> 
> I'm planning to give both Harry and Helena a magical familiar that isn't their owls. I already know what I'm going to give Helena, but I'm stuck on one for Harry. Do you have any suggestions?
> 
> And maybe name suggestions for these familiars as well. Helena's will be female and Harry's can be either.
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	6. Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry presents: a talking goat!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

The twins took deep breaths as they entered Dumbledore's office. The man seemed calm, but they knew better. During the summer, Lucius had stopped some of his motions to remove even more of Hogwarts classes. The old goat had stated that there was no money for it, but the goblins had revealed that there were several vaults filled with gold that were to be used for the school and had been started by the founders themselves. 

According to Lucius, the man had looked like he had swallowed too many of his precious lemondrops. He had shown them the memory and they had all laughed at his face. Instead of removing classes, Lucius had actually managed to bring two classes back that would start next year: Wizarding culture and Politics. These choices hadn't been a coincidence as he had known that the twins would deeply need them. Starting from this year, students would be able to choose for those two classes and both the twins and Lucius hoped to add more. 

But for now, they just kept their head low, both literally with Dumbledore's legilimency skills and figuratively. Lucius had started to whisper about why those classes were removed in the first place, but Dumbledore gave some weak exuse and people immediately believed him and forgot about it. He still had too much power in this world, but they had time. It wasn't good to play all their cards early.

Helena was snapped out of her thoughts by the old goat speaking up. "Ah, Harry and Helena. Good to see you both safe and sound. How was your summer?" Dumbledore asked, trying to make the twins look him in the eyes. He knew that it was very dangerous to use legilimency on them with Severus sitting right there next to them, but he needed to know where they had been during the summer.

In the first weeks of summer, he had managed to convince Cornelius to send Aurors to the Spinner's End by reminding him of Severus' past as a Death Eater and what he could possibly be doing to the Twins-Who-Lived. The bumbling fool had immediately listened and had sent Aurors to the house. Dumbledore had gone with them, a portkey in his hands to teleport the twins to one of his properties and his wand ready to force the Aurors into arresting Severus and send him to Azkaban immediately without trial, like he had done with Sirius. 

He would let the man rot there for a few years and by the time Voldemort returned and he needed his spy again, the twins would be firmly under his thumb and would want nothing to do with their father. He would make sure that Severus and the goblins would never come close to the twins ever again. He had been so close to getting the twins back under his control, already had his wand out to spell the Aurors... only to come up empty. 

Spinner's End had been completely abandoned, cold and dusty. No personal belongings. It was like no one had lived in it for at least a year. He had immediately gone to the house of Remus Lupin after the Aurors had left, only to find the same results there. It was without a doubt that both men lived with the twins and Molly's report about what had happened in Diagon Alley had confirmed this, but where on earth did they live? 

He needed to have the twins back under his control, which was why he had summoned them. It annoyed him to no end that Severus and Filius were with them once again. Would he ever manage to get them alone? They were always with their friends, of which none of them were his pawns, or with Severus. But perhaps, if he managed to convince them to come to Hogwarts early with Severus, he could push his pawns towards them without having to worry about their other friends. He could also try to get Harry and Ginny closer. 

"Oh, it was great! We worked a little and travelled a little. Dad needed new potion ingredients and allowed us to go with him. It was so awesome!" Harry gushed, actually telling the truth. Severus had taken them to collect new ingredients in the beginning of summer, before the twins had gone to Narnia. However, if there was anything that they really didn't want Dumbledore to know about, it was Narnia. 

"That's good to hear." Dumbledore said with a fake smile. They were not supposed to have a great summer. They were supposed to be beaten down by their relatives, but instead, they were happy, healthy and loved. "Listen, my dear boy and girl. Your father and I talked and I thought that it was cruel to split apart a family for a few weeks of the vacation. I thought that it would be best if you would come with him." He suggested. 

"We didn't exactly "talk" about it, Albus. It was more you suggesting it and then stubbornly refusing listen to Filius and I giving you numerous reasons why that is a bad idea. As I already told you then, it doesn't really matter if they're with the Malfoy family or with me during those last few weeks. I'd be too busy setting things up for the upcoming school year to be able to spend time with them. When they're with the Malfoys, I at least know that they're safe and cared for." Severus said in a tired tone, having had this discussion several times already.

"I thought about that, which is why I already asked Molly to let her youngest two children come here during those few weeks and perhaps Ms. Granger too, so that Harry and Helena would have someone to play with." Dumbledore said and Harry immediately rolled his eyes, slumping in his seat, but Helena gave no reaction. She had looked both thoughtful and confused for a few minutes now. 

"Albus, honestly. Harry and Helena do not like Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger and forcing them to be together like this will not help anything. I think that I speak for all three of them when I say that they're happy with this arrangement." Filius put in and both Harry and Severus nodded. Helena still looked thoughtful and Dumbledore noticed this. "Helena? What is on your mind, my girl?" He asked. Helena finally glanced up at his forehead.

"You said that it was cruel to split our family apart for just the last two weeks of summer and yet, it wasn't cruel to split it apart for ten years?" She asked and a silence fell. Dumbledore looked like a fish as he tried to come up with an excuse. He finally decided to let the twins leave, not knowing what to say. "Ouch." The adults heard Harry say, before the door closed. Severus immediately whirled around on Dumbledore. "Albus, this has to stop. We're happy with how things are and none of your little plans will change that." He said. 

"I'm just trying to help." Dumbledore tried, but Filius had enough. "Forcing two children that Harry and Helena clearly don't like on them like this and trying to control where they are isn't helping. You're a headmaster. Act like it. Where two children spend their time isn't any of your business and don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. I know what happened in the platform at the end of last year." He scolded. 

Dumbledore scowled, before letting them go as well without having gained any information about where the twins lived or where Sirius was. Severus was massaging his temples as they walked off the spiralling staircase. "He won't give up this easily." He muttered and Filius agreed, before they parted to prepare for their first classes of the year. They had decided to go down to the Chamber of Secrets during the next weekend. 

Rushing down to the greenhouses for Herbology, Harry and Helena were relieved to see that their friends had kept a spot free. "Sorry that we're late, professor Sprout. The headmaster wanted to see us." Helena apologised. "That's alright Ms. Snape. Your father already told me that you'd be late and I see your friends already saved you both a seat, so sit down quickly." Professor Sprout instructed and they obeyed. She explained that they would work with Mandrakes this year, which could be used to cure paralysis. Harry and Helena shared a look at that. 

After a rather tiring lesson, they were let out a bit early to clean themselves up after the struggling baby mandrakes had thrown dirt anywhere. After cleaning up, they had to split up as the Slytherins had Transfiguration and the Ravenclaws had Defence Against the Dark Arts. Padma and Helena shared a dreadful look at they walked towards the class, hoping that this wouldn't be as big of a flop as they feared

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still don't have a magical familiar for Harry, so I'd really like suggestions. I already have a suggestion for a hawk or a wolf. Any others? And it has to be a manageable animal, so dragons are out. I was thinking of maybe an Occamy, but I'm not sure
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	7. A golden peacock

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise 

The class wasn't as bad as Helena and Padma had feared....

It was actually _worse!_

Lockhart was a complete and utter fool, who was only interested in himself and the very first thing that he did was giving them a pop quiz about himself. Helena lifted a disbelieving eyebrow, before an idea formed in her brain and she grinned from where she was sitting in-between Padma and Neville. You should never meet Loki's daughter if you were this full of yourself. Helena quickly started to write.

Padma and Neville looked over her shoulder after a few minutes and cracked up. The first question was what Lockhart's favourite colour was. Helena had written that it was poop brown. The second question was what his secret ambition was. According to Helena, it was to get an even bigger head. The third question asked what was his greatest achievement according to them, to which Helena had written _"graduating school."_ Considering that Lockhart had been a Ravenclaw, Helena took his egotistical personality as an insult and she wasn't afraid to show it.

The last question was about what Lockhart's ideal birthday gift would be and Helena's answer would no doubt get her in detention, but she didn't care. After half an hour, Lockhart collected the papers and read through them. "Ah, I have the famously smart Helena Snape in my class. Let's see what her answers were." He said out loud, before starting to read some answers and Helena patiently waited after rolling her eyes.

At reading her answer to the last question, Lockhart suddenly became as red as a tomato and sputtered for several minutes, before quickly putting Helena's paper upside-down on his desk. Beneath their own desk, Helena and Padma shared a secret high-five and Neville grinned at her. "What did you write?" He asked in a whisper. "That's a secret." She whispered back with a mischievous grin on her face. 

Lockhart was flustered for the rest of class and just ordered them to read his books. As the bell rang, he told Helena to stay behind. "Yes, professor?" She asked innocently, Neville and Padma waiting at the door and Lockhart held up her test. "I don't want anymore language like this in my class, understood? I will have to discuss this with your Head of House and your father." He told her. Helena shrugged. "Alright, can I go now?" She asked

Lockhart sighed. "Helena, I really want to help you keep your great and magnificent fame, but you need to quit the attitude if you want to keep your fans." He said and Helena's smile fell. "Well, then let me be absolutely clear, _professor_ " She said in a cold tone and Lockhart could hear the likeness to her father. "Harry and I never wanted that fame. We don't want to be reminded of the night that we lost our mother and were ripped away from our family, so don't think that we want your help." She hissed, before turning around and stalking out of the room.

Neville and Padma quickly followed her, rubbing her back as they went to lunch. They sat down at the Slytherin table, knowing that the snakes would mind their own business and keep quiet about Helena's slightly red eyes. "The peacock can't look past his own beak." A dreamy voice suddenly said as Luna joined them as well and Helena gave her a small smile. "You can say that again, Luna." She agreed.

Harry and Draco joined them as well and immediately gave Helena concerned looks. "What happened?" Harry asked and Padma scowled. "Lockhart's being an egotistical arsehole. That's what happened." She growled, surprising everyone with her language. Neville told them about what Lockhart had said and Harry facepalmed at hearing it. "Great freaking start." He muttered, before trying to cheer his sister up. 

A sudden flash of light made everyone jump slightly and turn to face the culprit: a first year Gryffindor with a camera. "Oh, boy! Harry and Helena Snape! You're really famous! Everyone's told me about you. I'm Colin Creevey. Could I get a picture with you? To prove that I have met you." The boy said in one breath and Helena just planted her head face-down on her plate in response and groaned. "Not now, Colin. Now is not a good time." Harry said. Colin was about to protest, when Severus arrived and sent him back to the Gryffindor table. 

The man looked down at his daughter in concern, before looking at Harry and their friends. Harry immediately sent an accusing look towards Lockhart and he understood. The golden haired idiot had said something. Lockhart had already asked to speak with him, Filius and Helena that evening and he really wondered what it was about. He put a hand on Helena's shoulder and she looked up.

"Professor Lockhart wants to see us tonight." He told her and she groaned again, before nodding in a resigned way. He squeezed her shoulder and walked on. To change the subject, Padma told them about the answers that Helena had given and soon, everyone was laughing again. "We're don't know what she wrote at the last question about what his favourite birthday present would be." Padma said, looking at her friend. 

"And you're not going to." Helena said with a small smirk and everyone groaned in disappointment. Helena smiled, before going to eat her lunch. The rest of the day was spent just going to classes and after dinner, Helena, Severus and Filius knocked on the door of Lockhart's office. The three of them sat down in front of Lockhart and waited. "I must say that I'm very disappointed in Helena. I gave her an easy test and she failed every single question." Lockhart started and both Severus and Filius have Helena a surprised look.

She just rolled her eyes. "I would've done my best, if the test was about the subject that we're supposed to learn and not about the man teaching it." She said and her father and Head of House turned their incredulous gazes towards a sheepish Lockhart. "You gave them a test about yourself?" Severus asked slowly and once again, Lockhart could see the resemblance between father and daughter. 

"Just a couple of questions." He answered feebly. "54 in total." Helena piped up and Filius narrowed his eyes. He agreed that that wasn't a test for during class. "I would like to see Helena's test." He said, holding out his hand. Lockhart gave him Helena's paper and the half-goblin had to keep his laughter in several times while reading Helena's sassy answers. Arriving at the last question, he could see why they were called.

Desperately trying not to laugh, he gave the test to Severus. The man raised an eyebrow at seeing the questions, before looking at his daughter's answers. His lips twitched a few times, before reading the last question and immediately looking down sternly. "Where did you learn these words?" He asked. "Pads." Helena answered and Severus rolled his eyes. "I've got to talk to him about watching his mouth around you." He muttered, before assuring Lockhart that Helena would be punished for her actions and the three left. 

"Helena, I dont want to see you use this language again, understood?" Severus asked sternly and Helena immediately nodded. "As it is: ten points from Ravenclaw and two nights detention with professor Flitwick next week." Her father continued and she nodded again. "And fifteen points to Ravenclaw for hilarious answers on a ridiculous test." Filius piped up with a smile and Helena grinned at him.

Saying goodbye to Severus and after Helena gave him a hug, Filius escorted the young raven to the tower. Severus went to his office in the dungeons and looked the test over once again, this time allowing himself to chuckle at his daughter's wit. He knew that despite his disapproval of the language, Sirius and Remus would love to read this test. He made copies to send in the morning, before reading the last question again. 

_What's Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday and what would be his ideal birthday gift?_

_"April 1st and getting a good screw up the arse."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The basilisk will be in the next chapter.
> 
> Don't forget to leave suggestions. 
> 
> Read and review.


	8. Bloody hell, that's a big snake!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

The next week passed without much difference, except for Lockhart continuing to prove what kind of a fraud he was. He released Cornish pixies in Harry's class and failed to recapture them, forcing Harry, Draco and their friends to capture them instead. At hearing this, Helena already had enough and wrote to the goblins, asking them to look deeper into Lockhart's stories and they had promised to do so. 

On the day after Helena's class with Lockhart, she got a letter from Sirius. Severus had sent him and Remus a copy of her test and the Animagus had told her how "bloody proud" he was of her, making her smile. A rather small note from Remus that had accompanied the letter scolded her for the language, but also told her that Sirius had laughed for five straight minutes at reading her answers and that he hadn't laughed like that in quite a while because of nightmares. Remus thanked her for making him laugh again.

One thing that the twins quickly learned was that Ginny was even worse than Granger and Weasley. She always tried to be close to Harry and was only interested in making them look like a couple. Much to Helena's relief, the girl mostly focused herself on Harry, but the boy wasn't really happy with that. It didn't help that whenever Ginny saw him talking to Padma, Luna or even Daphne Greengrass, she would become hysterical and run off like Harry had insulted her

Finally, it was weekend and the twins could start putting their plans in motion. Severus was supposed to be in a meeting with the teachers, so he just hugged the twins as tightly as he could before they left. "Be careful down there. I love you." He whispered and they hugged him back. "We love you too." They chorused, before they let go and reluctantly went their separate ways. James Potter's invisibility cloak came in handy as the twins snuck towards where the entrance was.

They slowly opened the door and immediately heard someone crying. Knowing who it was, they slowly walked further. "Who's there?!" The ghost of Myrtle Warren demanded and the twins pulled off the cloak. "Oh! Heir Helena and Heir Harry. It's an honour." Myrtle said, giving them a little bow. As one of the school's ghosts, she knew exactly who they were and was loyal to them over Dumbledore.

The twins smiled at her. "Myrtle, perhaps you could help us with something." Helena suggested and Myrtle perked up in interest, meaning that she floated several feet up. "Anything, my Heirs." She replied, floating towards them. Helena gave her a wry smile, knowing that the upcoming subject would be hard on her. "We'll need this bathroom this year for our plan to keep Dumbledore busy. If anyone tries to use it for anything else, you warn either us or one of our house ghosts and try to be as annoying as possible, so that they'll leave." She said. 

Myrtle cackled in glee. "I'm in! What's the plan?" She asked and the twins shared a look. "We'll let him think that Slytherin's basilisk is freed and for that, we'll need this bathroom." Harry finally explained and Myrtle stopped flying in such a sudden way that it was almost cartoonish. "What?! Are you insane?! I died during the last time that that monster was set loose! Do you want to leave Hogwarts without Heirs once again?!" She demanded. 

They explained what had happened to Tom last time and how he hadn't wanted to kill her. They explained that Dumbledore had forced Tom to open the chamber and kill her, so that the boy would make his first Horcrux. Myrtle screeched and flew into one of the toilets, making water fly out and wet the floor. The twins knew that she wasn't angry at them, but at Dumbledore and turned to face the sinks.

"Okay.... so, we have to use Parseltongue to open the door." Harry muttered, before closing his eyes. Tom had explained in great detail how to open the chamber. _"_ _Open."_ He hissed and the sinks started to move, revealing a large pipe down. Sharing a look with Helena, Harry carefully sat down on the edge of the pipe and lowered himself down as much as he could, before finally letting go and sliding down the pipe. Once she heard him vaguely give the okay, Helena quickly did the same. "Yabba-dabba doo!" She shouted as she slid down the slippery pipe. 

"She landed in a pit filled with small animal bones. "Ewww, gross." She muttered as she got up. "A snake's gotta eat, Lena." Harry told her, before using the Lumos spell to light the way. Arriving at another rocky chamber, both twins gulped at seeing the enormous heaps of skin that were lying on the ground. The fact that they were about to visit a basilisk suddenly seemed to hit them. 

"It's that dad knows about us doing this, otherwise, he would kill us once again." Helena muttered to her brother as they carefully continued on and came across a round door made of iron. Using Parseltongue to open it, the twins cautiously entered what they realised was the real Chamber of Secrets. Slowly moving forwards, they came across a giant statue of Salazar Slytherin himself.

Sharing another look, the twins covered their eyes, before starting to speak in unison as they had found out that Helena could speak Parseltongue as well. _"Speak to me, Slytherin, Greatest of Hogwarts four."_ They said together. Immediately after that, they heard something moving and had to fight the urge to run. They heard and felt something large hitting the floor and slithering closer to them. " _What is this? New hatchlings? It has been a while since there were two hatchlings here. Why are you looking away?"_ A low, female voice hissed. 

Harry gulped, before answering. _"The former heir told us to do this. He also asked us to ask you to use your special eyelids in case that we will not be able to look at you since we're half-bloods."_ He said. _"Ah. I understand, little hatchling."_ The voice said, before falling silent for a few seconds. _"You can look now, little hatchlings. It is safe."_ She reassured them and they slowly pulled their hands away, only to stare.

The basilisk was _massive!_ It was the biggest snake that they had ever seen. The basilis hissed a laugh at seeing their faces. _It is good to have new little hatchlings her. Tell me, is the hatchling from the previous time alright? He smelled so off and he actually ordered me to kill other hatchlings. I know that I killed at least one."_ She hissed. The twins nodded. _"The man, who is now the headmaster of this school, had him under potions and spells to do his bidding."_ Helena explained. 

The basilisk immediately hissed in fury, calling Dumbledore several things that Harry and Helena had never even heard off. Seeing that her furious hissing was frightening them, the basilisk forcefully calmed herself down. _"What are your names, hatchlings?"_ She asked. _"I'm Harry and this is my sister Helena. What is your name?"_ Harry asked, the basilisk telling them that it was Halina, before she tilted her head. _"I wonder from which line you are. I know that the previous hatchling came from my master's oldest son, but I'm not sure about you."_ She said.

 _"Salazar had more children?"_ Helena asked. " _Of course. In that time, it was idiotic to only have one child. I know that the line of the eldest son went insane by moronic inbreeding, but I don't know about the lines of my master's daughter and younger son. The last thing I heard was one of the Gaunts boasting about how they were the only line that still had magic."_ Halina said. By this time, the twins had sat down on the ground.

" _You mean that the other lines resulted in squibs?"_ Helena asked and Halina nodded, telling them that it was an absolute shame as the daughter had married one of Gryffindor's sons and Salazar's younger son had married the daughter of Helga Hufflepuff. "That explains three of our titles. Now, we just need Ravenclaw and Peverell." Helena said and Harry agreed, before asking Halina about it. 

_"I heard from the house-elves that one of my master's descendants marrying a Peverell and they got a daughter, who married a man named Potter. Rowena had several children too, so I'm sure that one of my master's descendants married one of hers and that union finally resulted into you."_ Halina answered. Seeing them looking at her in surprise, she chuckled. _Did you think that I could survive on rats alone? The house elves give me food when I wake up and I need it."_ She explained. The twins nodded, before telling Halina about their plan for this year 

The Basilisk was gleeful about making things worse for the man, who had hurt her hatchlings. As long as she didn't have to hurt anyone innocent, she would gladly help. Unlike how the story went, Salazar hadn't bred her to get rid of the Muggle-borns, but to protect the students from the muggles, who had been in the midst of the witch-hunts. It was because of Salazar's evil descendants that the wrong story was brought out.

Before they knew it, it was almost lunchtime and the twins said goodbye to Halina as she slithered back into her hole and the twins started on their return trip. Tom had told them that there was another one-way exit that would immediately transport them to a hidden hall on the first floor. Using that exit, the twins quickly joined some other students on the way to the Great Hall. 

"You know, it would be totally awesome to have a creature like that." Harry muttered and Helena shook her head. "While I agree to a certain extent, Halina is for no one to keep. She belongs here in the school. Besides, where would we keep her?" She asked and her brother agreed. They entered the Great Hall and were immediately accosted by their worried friends, all wondering where they had been. "Calm down, guys. We found a secret chamber to do our homework and plan for the upcoming year. We might just show it to you later" Helena said.

This secretly informed Draco and Neville where they had been and the boys nodded. Satisfied at their answers, their friends sat down with them at the Hufflepuff table to eat. Severus entered the Great Hall and sighed in relief at seeing his children unharmed and safe. During lunch, Ginny tried to flirt with Harry again and the boy used this to touch the diary that Ginny always seemed to carry. 

He pushed a little bit of magic in the book, alerting the Horcrux that Halina was on their side and the plan could begin. The horcrux would start to influence Ginny, starting off by killing the roosters that Hagrid kept as a cry from those animals could kill Halina. Now, they just needed to pick something to sent a warning with. But they had time to figure that out. After all, the year had just begun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plan really has begun now.
> 
> Don't forget to leave suggestions. I think I'll introduce the familiars in about three chapters from now
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	9. Halloween and the first victim

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Several weeks passed and before they knew it, it was around the end of October. Helena had gotten an answer from the goblins, which revealed that Lockhart was a fraud and that he had stolen his stories from other people, who had done the actual deeds by obliviating them. Helena had taken the letter to her father, who had told Lucius about it, who in turn had told Amelia Bones.

She had quickly started a case on the man, but kept quiet about it. She knew that the minute Lockhart knew that they were on to him, he would flee. It would take quite a while, before she had enough evidence, even with the goblins help. She estimated that it would take until just before Christmas break at the very least, meaning that the twins had to endure the fraud for several more weeks. They both groaned, but if they could survive the Dursleys, they could endure the peacock.

If that wasn't bad enough, Weasley and Granger had doubled their efforts to try and get closer to the twins. No doubt on Dumbledore's orders. They also seemed to take the fact that Harry and Helena had friends that weren't them as a personal insult. Helena had already lost count of the amount of times that thay had shoved themselves into a conversation. 

_'Literally.'_ She thought, rubbing her arm where Granger had hit her in the know-it-all's haste to take charge of a conversation between her and Luna. Grander had told her that she would make a far better friend than "Loony" and Helena had glared at her, saying that Luna didn't shove herself into conversations that weren't even about her and didn't try to force someone to be her friend. 

Granger had stared at her in shock and she had quickly used the opportunity to escape with Luna. This didn't deter her for long, unfortunately, as Granger tried to insert herself into the conversation again at lunch, hitting Padma in the arm when the Indian girl tried to send her away. Unfortunately for Granger, professor Flitwick had been walking behind her and had seen her hitting Padma. He promptly took twenty points from Gryffindor and assigned Granger a week of detention. 

Dumbledore tried to protest the detention, of course, but professor Flitwick held firm and wouldn't back down and when even Minerva supported him over one of her own lions, Dumbledore had to give up. Another very annoying thing was how Granger tried to be better than Harry, Helena and their friends. She drove herself and others crazy by her insane need to be better than anyone. 

The only class that she excelled better than the twins and that was only because of the "teacher." Harry and Helena didn't really do as well as they could and since Lockhart only put up little plays about his courageous deeds after the pixie incident. "He had tried to use Harry and Helena, but after an angry Severus had told him that he would go to the Aurors if he continued to put this up, he quickly chose someone else

Weasley was on the complete opposite side of the studying spectrum. He tried to distract Harry and Helena as much as he could, talking loudly about Quidditch and Wizard's chest and inviting them to go play with him about every five minutes, until the twins were forced to either go to the library, their common rooms or the Chamber of Secrets to get some peace and quiet. Especially the latter option became more and more popular as Halina was actually a very nice and smart conversation partner.

The twins had told Halina that they planned the first hint on Halloween to distract themselves from what that date meant. A few days before that date, Hagrid's roosters were found dead and the twins shared a hidden smirk at that, knowing exactly who was responsible for that. They had kept an eye on Ginny from afar and had seen her writing in the diary several times. 

Everything seemed to go perfect. Halina was ready to slither through the school while everyone was at the feast and the horcrux would force Ginny to write a threatening message on the wall right outside Myrtle's bathroom with the blood of the roosters. Some of the ghosts had offered to keep an eye on everything, so that there wouldn't be any casualties. 

Halina's protective eyelids luckily also worked on ghosts, so that was one thing taken care of. Fred and George also kept in contact through the mirrors. They continuously begged the twins to introduce them to Padfoot and Moony, but unlike with their little brother, the Snape twins simply laughed and promised that they would one day.

Everything seemed to go perfect as the Halloween feast wasn't interrupted this time. That was, until dessert arrived and the Bloody Baron floated towards Harry. "Everything alright, sir?" Harry asked. "Not really. I just saw a cat run in front of a snake in a puddle of water and become petrified with fear. In my days, cats wouldn't be that scared from a little snake." The Baron huffed, telling Harry that a cat had been petrified by Halina. Harry nodded at his words, before sharing a look with Helena.

Sure enough, when they left the Great Hall once the feast was over, they and pretty much all the other students came across the corridor with the message written in blood. _"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened! Enemies of the Heir, beware!"_ Helena honestly thought that it was a bit much, but it was supposed to send a message and it did so wonderfully

Aa petrified cat was hanging from a torch. The twins gulped slightly at seeing that it was the cat of Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts and who happened to be very protective of his pet. As if someone had called him, the man himself appeared and was horrified at seeing the state of his cat. That was when Dumbledore and the other professors arrived. 

Severus immediately looked at his children, who gave him very sheepish looks back. "Oops." Harry mouthed towards his father, who rolled his eyes. Of course, Lockhart used this opportunity to boast about how he could've saved the cat if he had been there and anyone with a brain just rolled their eyes. The students were ordered to go back to their common rooms, but Dumbledore told Harry and Helena to stay."Albus, they have nothing to do with this." Professor Flitwick protested, despite knowing that they had.

The other teachers all agreed with him and the twins were let off anyway, quickly running after their friends as soon as they could. They had no idea why Dumbledore had wanted them to stay there if they had seemingly nothing to do with this, but considering that his pawns had clearly also wanted to stay, it was probably another ridiculous attempt at forcing them together. 

At the next opportunity, the twins went down to see an upset Halina. It turned out that the cat, Mrs. Norris, had seen Ginny write the message on the wall and had turned to warn Filch. Seeing no other choice, Tom's horcrux had ordered her to petrify the cat. Harry and Helena calmed her down by reassuring her that the cat would be fine by the end of the year. 

Halina was relieved to hear that, although she wondered if she would have to keep petrifying animals. The twins told her about the golems that the goblins were creating in case that Dumbledore became too nosy again. The first part of the plan had been successful, even with a hiccup. Now they just needed a student getting petrified to really scare Dumbledore, but who? Little did they know that they would find the perfect student from the most unexpected of places

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow will be the first quidditch game and a certain something else. I probably won't update on Sunday as I will be gone throughout the entire afternoon and will probably be very tired after that and I still have to update my other stories
> 
> This means that the familiars won't be introduced until next week. 
> 
> Don't forget to leave suggestions for names and creatures
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	10. Finding the second victim

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

For the next few weeks, there was a slightly tense atmosphere in the school, although no one was too worried yet. Filch tried to get rid of the message, but failed to do so as the house-elves had used special magic to make sure that it stayed after the twins had reassured them that they would not harm any student. Once the year was over, they would ask them to remove it. 

One day, Harry was doing his homework with Draco when the Bloody Baron floated towards them. "What's wrong, sir?" Harry asked, knowing that the ghost wouldn't come to him without a good reason. "The Myrtle girl has been complaining again. Apparently, this time there are second year students brewing a potion in her toilet. Honestly, can't they wait until class to do that?" The baron asked, before floating on while muttering underneath his breath. Harry and Draco immediately went to Severus' office as fast as they could without looking suspicious. 

"Dad?" Harry asked, knocking on the door. "Come in." His father's voice sounded and Harry and Draco quickly walked in. "What is it, Harry?" The man immediately asked, instinctively looking his son over for any injuries. "The Baron just told us that Myrtle warned him that there were second year students illegally brewing a potion in her toilet." Harry said and the man immediately stood up and walked out of the room, the two boys following. 

Not only did they need to use the toilet, it was also very dangerous to brew a potion without guidance, especially for the earlier years. Anything can go wrong. They arrived at the door of Myrtle's lavatory and heard voices inside. Severus waved Harry and Draco away and the boys left. The potions master listened to two familiar voices talk: Granger and Weasley. He ruled his eyes. 

_'Of course, it's them.'_ He thought. "Are we sure that we're not going to get into trouble?" He heard Weasley ask and Granger reassured him that they wouldn't. Severus opened the door at that and raised an eyebrow at two startled students. "Well, what do we have here? Two little lions brewing an illegal potion." He said, walking further inside and Granger and Weasley quickly stood up. "How did you find us?" Weasley asked. "You weren't exactly quiet, Mr. Weasley. I could hear your voice from outside." He answered, keeping silent about their spy.

Both Granger and Weasley lowered their heads, knowing that they were caught red-handed. Severus glanced at the cauldron and saw what had to be the beginnings of Polyjuice potion. With a flick of his wand, the potion and cauldron disappeared. Once it was gone, Severus silently ordered the two to follow him and they obeyed as they made their way towards Minerva's office. 

To say that the Head of Gryffindor was angry after hearing what the two had tried to do, would be an understatement. She thanked Severus for bringing them to her and the man could still hear her scolding them at the end of the hallway. Harry and Draco were back in the Common room when he went to check and he gave them a small nod, telling them that it had been taken care of. Granger and Weasley got detention for two weeks 

The next time that the twins went to the Chamber, they thanked Myrtle for her warning and the ghost girl laughed, glad to help the Heirs. Halina was relieved to know that she hadn't been discovered and that their plan could continue. This made the twins realise that they should probably start making back-up plans. They relied so much on this one plan, but what if the diary was discovered? Or what if Ginny threw it away and someone else discovered it? The next Saturday, Helena was walking alone, when she suddenly heard someone crying.

She followed the sound to a tapestry and pulled it away to find a hidden alcove and a crying Colin Creevey in it. "Colin? Are you alright?" She asked gently and the boy jumped up, pieces of something falling from his hands. Walking closer, Helena saw that it were pieces of his camera and she immediately felt sympathy. It was clear that the camera had been very important to the boy and while he could be a bit irritating at times, he meant no harm. 

"Th-they broke it, H-helena. They broke m-my camera. I-it was a gift f-from my parents and they br-broke it." Colin stumbled to say through his tears and Helena quickly sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around him. "It's okay, Colin. I'm sure that professor Mcgonagall can fix it." She tried to console him and he looked up at her with hopeful eyes. She smiled at him. "Come on, collect all the pieces." She said and they quickly did so.

They carried the pieces to professor Mcgonagall's office. The woman was surprised to see Helena in her office as usually either Severus or Filius helped her, before seeing the still slightly crying Colin and the broken camera. She luckily managed to repair it, but the film that had been inside it was ruined for good. Professor Mcgonagall gently sat Colin down and asked who were responsible for the deed. He was reluctant to tell at first, but after reassurance from Helena, who had stayed at his request, he told them that it had been Weasley and Granger

He also told them that they had tried to bully him into spying on Harry and Helena. Weasley broke his camera in anger when he had refused. "That was a very brave thing of you, Mr. Creevey." Professor Mcgonagall said and Colin quickly wiped his nose. "Professor, can I get resorted? I don't really like it in Gryffindor and they bully me because I'm always taking pictures." He said and professor Mcgonagall gave him a small smile. 

"I'm sorry, Mr. Creevey, but you have to spend at least an entire school year in your original house, before you can get resorted. Those are the rules." She said and Colin nodded sadly, before leaving with his repaired camera. Seeing him go made the figurative lightbulb go on in Helena's mind and she quickly ran after him. "Hey, Colin. What if I knew a way that you wouldn't have to deal with Granger and Weasley for the rest of the year?" She asked. 

Colin immediately lit up, but she held up a finger to stop him. "However, you would also miss the rest of the year and probably start over next year, instead of going to your second year." She warned him. "I don't care. I don't want to be there anymore." Colin said. Helena smiled and told him to come to her father's office during the next day, before saying goodbye and walking off. Telling her father and brother of the situation, they weren't very happy with it, but agreed that it was worth a try. Severus went through the Floo to Gringotts to get one of the golems.

The next day, a very curious Colin knocked on the door and was quickly let in. After making him swear secrecy, they told him that they were behind the whole situation with the Chamber of Secrets and the boy was shocked and slightly frightened for a bit, before they reassured him that they didn't want to hurt anyone. He calmed down at that and asked how he could help. 

The plan was to send Colin to Malfoy Manor, where Narcissa and Lucius would look after him. He would still learn as much as he could through the homework that the twins and Severus would send him, but if everything went right, he would year to do this year again anyway. It wasn't a perfect plan, but they couldn't keep petrifying animals. The stakes had to be raised. Colin quickly agreed to help. 

Using three drops of his blood and a few spells, they made them golem look like a petrified version of him. Colin got ordered to secretly pack a few personal belongings in the next week, things that he couldn't live without for the rest of the year and he quickly agreed. The next week would be the first quidditch game of the year and it would provide the ideal distraction to get Colin out of the castle and plant the golem. They hoped that it would go right this time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's probably not the most perfect plan, but they have to keep Dumbledore off their trail
> 
> Second-to-last chance for suggestions. Remember that I probably won't update tomorrow, but I will react to comments if I can. The familiars are almost certain, but I still need names
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	11. Lockhart's rotten day

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

In the days after "Colin" was petrified, there was quite a lot of rumour going around Hogwarts. First years moved together in groups as if they were afraid that one if them would be next to get petrified. It hurt Harry and Helena to scare them like this, but they would make sure that no harm would come to them. They had already started planning what to do next.

A surprising offer came from Nearly Headless Nick, who had come across the twins trying to decide what to do next. As he was a ghost, he couldn't die again if Halina looked at him without her protective eyelids and it would send Dumbledore in a frenzy. The ghosts absolutely hated the old man and when they heard from Myrtle that the twins were trying to make this year very difficult for him, they were immediately on board. As he was the headmaster, they couldn't do anything directly, but they could help the Heirs. 

After a bit of back-and-forth between Halina and Nick, it was decided that they would do it in the week before Christmas break. To have another attack so soon after the last one would rattle Dumbledore even more. Lucius had already written that if they continued this, he would be able to get Dumbledore removed as headmaster. Temporarily, of course as the man still had too much support, but it would shake his image. 

Lucius also wrote that Amelia was almost done collecting evidence on Lockhart and would arrest him in the week before Christmas break as well. Sharing a look, the twins got an idea for Lockhart to pay for all the times that he had tried to use them for his own gain and fame. It would not hurt him, but it would most certainly make him piss his pants. One mirror-call to the Weasley twins later and they were in. 

After getting the date from Lucius on which the arrest would take place, the Snape twins and the Weasley twins found themselves outside of Lockhart's rooms during the night before. The Weasley twins used their magic to lift him up from his bed and carry him out of the room, the map and the invisibility cloak making sure that they weren't spotted. One spell from Helena's book turned Lockhart invisible as well, except for her. "So, what's the plan from here on exactly?" Fred asked in a whisper.

Harry immediately smirked at him. "You'll see." He said, before opening the entrance to the chamber of secrets and making stairs appear with another hiss. The Weasley twins stared, before seeing that Harry and Helena were already going down and quickly following them with the unconscious Lockhart. Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the very bottom. 

Quickly walking past the heaps of old snake skin, which made the Weasley twins stare again as they started to realise where they were, Harry and Helena opened the next door. "Gred, Forge. Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets." Helena whispered and she chuckled at the shocked Weasley twins. Because they didn't know if anyone had been listening, they hadn't told them where they would be going. 

The only thing that they had told Fred and George was that they were going to prank Lockhart and also being let in on a secret. "You are behind the attacks, aren't you?" Fred asked slowly. "Yes, but before you say anything, Colin isn't petrified. That is actually a golem lying in the hospital wing. Colin is safe at Malfoy Manor." Harry quickly explained and the twins relaxed at that as they reached the statue at the end. Fred and George slowly lowered Lockhart on the ground and hid behind a pillar at Helena's order.

From their hiding place behind another pillar, Harry said the phrase, while his sister sent a small stinging hex towards Lockhart to wake him up. Halina was in on the plan and her protective eyelids were covering her deadly eyes. The man slowly sat up straight with his back towards the statue and groaned. "Ugh... why did I wake up. I was just having a good.... dream." He said, trailing off as he realised that he wasn't in his bed.

Hearing something behind him, Lockhart slowly turned around and looked up. Seeing the enormous serpent, who showed him her big, venomous fangs for good measure, Lockhart screamed before getting up and starting to run. At Helena's nod, Fred stunned the man and he fell again. "Fred, George. This is Halina." Harry said, gesturing to the basilisk.

"Wicked." Fred and George chorused, before they had to leave again. Using the other exit and the map, they managed to get Lockhart back into his bed, before splitting up. As they were leaving, the stunning spell wore off and Lockhart jumped up in bed, looking around frantically. "I'm in bed. Of course, I'm in bed. As if I would be afraid of a little garden snake." He scoffed, completely lying to even himself. He laid back down, but he couldn't find sleep again, Halina's yellow eyes staring at him whenever he closed his eyes. 

Helena had his class first thing in the morning. There was supposed to be a dueling club that evening, but they heard at breakfast that it was cancelled as Lockhart didn't feel well. Helena herself was a bit tired as well, but she could keep herself awake. When Lockhart walked in, everyone could see why the club was cancelled. The man's hair and clothes were askew and he had bags under his eyes. 

The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students all murmured amongst each other as Lockhart ordered them to read his books, before sitting down at his desk and almost immediately leaning his head on his hand. Helena bit her lip to keep herself from grinning. Glancing up after half an hour and seeing him about to fall asleep, she used a bit of her magic to make his arm fall away. 

Lockhart's face met his desk with a bang, startling the students. "Owwww." Lockhart groaned as he held his bleeding nose. He dismissed the class early as he had to go to the hospital wing. Neville sent Helena a knowing look, having a very big suspicion that she was responsible for this and she gave him an innocent look back. The day continued on normally, until lunch.

The students were chatting amongst themselves, when Amelia Bones and her Aurors came in. A surprised Dumbledore asked her what she was doing here. "I came to arrest someone, who is suspected of fraud, theft and illegally using the obliviate charm." Amelia replied as her aurors spread out through the Great Hall, blocking all the exits.Amelia turned to Lockhart. "Gilderoy Lockhart. You are hereby charged with seven cases of plagiarism and stealing the stories of someone else." She stated, before ordering her Aurors to arrest him.

Lockhart and Dumbledore tried to protest, but Amelia didn't listen as she took Lockhart with her. Harry and Helena shared a hidden high-five underneath the table. The peacock was gone. Now they just needed the "attack" on Nick and Dumbledore would probably be too distracted during the Christmas Wizengamot meeting. Things were really looking up for now. 

Dumbledore was absolutely shocked. He knew that Lockhart had been nothing more than a complete fool and a fraud. It had been why he had been hired in the first place. He had to keep the students dumb and scared, so that they would look up to him to fight the dark and no one else. Now, he had to look for someone else to fill in the rest of the year. 

The next day, the school was in a state of panic after Nearly Headless Nick had been found petrified. Draco and Neville were staying behind to keep an eye on things at the school during Christmas break. Dumbledore called the twins to his office yet again and tried to convince them to stay once more. When they refused another time, he pretty much ordered them to stay. Before Severus or professor Flitwick could intervene and snap back, Helena did it for them. 

"I have an idea. Sirius has been in contact with Harry and I and has invited us to stay with him. How about we do that to ease your mind?" She suggested and Dumbledore agreed, happy that she was finally listening and not knowing that it didn't make any difference. Once they were out of hearing, the four people burst into laughter.

"I can't believe that he actually fell for it." Harry muttered once they had calmed down. "I can. He's an idiot." Helena replied. After they split from the adults, they came across Ginny again and Harry managed to send surge of magic into the diary to tell it to keep things low. They had already said goodbye to Halina as they prepared for the holiday. Little did the twins know, that a very special meeting was about to happen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The familiars will be in the next chapter. 
> 
> Helena probably seemed a bit cruel here, but she is the goddess of death and Lockhart had already burned through her patience in the first week
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	12. Finding familiars

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Sirius Black was patiently waiting on the platform for the Hogwarts Express to pick up Harry and Helena. The twins had told him that the Weasleys were staying at the school as Molly and Arthur were going on vacation and it did show as the former was nowhere to be found. Which was just as well, as Sirius didn't know how he would react to the woman after the stunt that she tried to pull at the end of last year. 

Still, he knew that there were plenty of Dumbledore's pawns that would report back to the old man that he had picked up the twins. He wouldn't be surprised if some of them tried to talk to him to find out where he was going with them. The train arrived and students streamed out. Harry and Helena ran towards him as fast as they could and gave him a big hug, which he happily returned. The fact that they were willingly hugging him after everything that they had been through still amazed him. To him, it showed how much they trusted him already

As he had predicted, the minute that he turned around to leave the platform, he was accosted by people he knew were in Dumbledore's pockets. They talked about how good it was to see him again and that they had always believed in his innocence. He secretly rolled his eyes at that, keeping a tight grip on the twins. Severus would literally kill him if anything happened to them under his watch.

Soon enough, the conversation turned to where he was going with Harry and Helena and what they were going to do during the holiday. "I was thinking of going to Black Island in the Mediterranean sea. As for what we're going to do, I can't tell you. It's a surprise for even them." He said, before quickly excusing himself and leaving with the twins. Once they had apparated to Peverell Manor, they all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Well done, you two." Sirius commented, making them smile at him. Greeting Remus, the werewolf held up the newspaper with the article about Lockhart's arrest. "You two wouldn't have anything to do with this, would you?" He asked, despite knowing that they were. "No and we totally didn't kidnap Lockhart during the night before to let him meet Halina." Helena quickly replied and Sirius burst into laughter. "Oh, that's just great." He said while still laughing and the twins themselves showed grins on their faces. Remus sighed, but eventually smiled as well.

Once they had calmed down, Remus told them to go and work on their homework for a bit so that they would have that done. They groaned, but obeyed. For the first couple of days, it was just the twins, Sirius and Remus as Dumbledore was actually trying his best to keep Severus at the school. He had also written letters to Sirius in which he almost begged the man to come and talk to him about getting custody of the twins behind their and their father's backs.

Sirius actually snapped a quill in two at reading the first letter and Remus, Kreacher and Dobby had to use their magic and reasoning to keep him from doing something stupid and going back to Azkaban by reminding him that Harry and Helena needed him more. Sirius finally calmed himself down at that. Severus finally managed to leave when Filius, Pomona and even Minerva supported him and let him leave to be with his children. 

According to the rules of Hogwarts, a Head of House was allowed to leave during vacation if they had someone to look after the students while they left. The Astronomy professor would look after the select few Slytherin students that remained as most of them went home during the holidays. The minute he stepped out of the floo, he immediately had his arms full of twins. "It's alright. I'm here now." He whispered, holding them close. He could tell that they hadn't liked him still being in Dumbledore's territory while they were safe with Sirius and Remus.

Sirius and Remus watched their reunion with smiles on their faces. The twins had been nervous wrecks during the past few days and it felt good to see that their worrying had been for nothing. After a few minutes, Severus slowly let go of his children and sat down on the couch. Nothing had happened while the twins had been gone, except for Dumbledore's insistence that the twins were happier with this new arrangement. 

However, Harry's and Helena's immediate reaction to him arriving had quickly proven the man wrong, even if Severus didn't believe him in the first place. The diary had kept itself low for now, although Percy Weasley had noticed that his sister was looking rather pale in the past few weeks. Luckily, he thought that she was just having a cold, suggested a Pepper-up potion and that was the end of it.

How someone so smart could be so ignorant, completely boggled the twins. He had been so close to figuring out what was going on, but he just wrote it if as fear of what was happening and having a cold. "The Weasleys are Pure-blood. Even if Halina didn't have her protective eyelids and Ginny wasn't the one that we were using, she would have nothing to fear. If Percy had asked a bit further, he would've discovered our entire plan. I'm almost wondering how he can be so short-sighted, but then I remember that he's a Gryffindor." Helena muttered. 

Everyone laughed and agreed. A few days before Christmas, they went shopping for presents. They were disguised by magic, so no one bothered them. After they had already bought several presents, Harry and Helena suddenly stopped walking. The adults quickly noticed and looked at them in concern. "What is it?" Severus asked, kneeling in front of his children. "I'm not sure." Helena murmured, feeling like something was calling her. 

"You feel it too?" Harry asked and Helena nodded, before they both started to walk in a specific direction. Severus, Sirius and Remus quickly followed them as they went into a side-alley. "I've never been here before." Remus said as he looked around the tiny shops that sold charms and things like that. The twins didn't stop walking, until they came across a specific ship that seemed rather run down. 

" _Radcliffe's familiars."_ Sirius read, never having heard of the shop before. The twins were already walking inside and the adults were forced to follow them. A dark-haired man was behind the counter reading a book. At hearing the bell above the door go off, he looked up and seemed just as surprised to see them there as Severus, Sirius and Remus were. "Well, it has been a while since anyone came into my shop." He said, before getting up and walking towards them. "Which one of you felt something calling?" He asked, rubbing his hands. 

Harry and Helena raised their hands in unison. "Both of you?! Well, I never had that before. I'm Daniel, by the way. Call me Dan." He said, holding out his hand. They all shook it, the adults more suspiciously than the twins. Harry was looking around in the meantime. It was a pet shop, but unlike any other pet shops he had ever seen and that included the magical one at the main part of the alley. Animals of all shapes and sizes were roaming their enclosures.

Different kinds of magical snakes, birds and other kinds of creatures. Harry even saw an Ashwinder and an Augurey. His attention was pulled by Dan clapping his hands. "Darling, we have two customers!" He called and a beautiful, blonde woman appeared from the back of the shop. "Well, if it isn't the Twins-Who-Lived. It is an absolute honour. I'm Cate" She said, an Australian accent in her voice, before shaking their hands as well. 

"Who wants to go first?" She asked and after a very quick game of rock-paper-scissors, Harry raised his hand and she nodded. "Alright, just close your eyes and concentrate. Let your magic guide you towards the right animal." Cate instructed and Harry obeyed. He immediately felt himself being pulled towards a glass enclosure in a dark corner. In it was a sleeping teal and purple coloured creature with two legs, the body of a snake and the wings and head of a bird. As if sensing him, the creature woke up and raised its head to look at him.

The two stared at each other, before the creature let out a chirp and fluttered among the cage while letting out increasingly frustrated sounding chirps as if it was demanding to be let out. "That one." Harry said with a smile and Dan nodded, before opening the enclosure. The creature flew at Harry and curled itself around his arm, a connection snapping into place. "Congratulations, Mr. Snape. You've got yourself an Occamy." Cate said and Harry smiled at her. 

"The most wondrous thing about finding your familiar, is that the bond grows with you, especially when you're as young as you. Your bond will develop as time goes by. It's pretty much like soulmates, but then with animals." Dan explained. "So, we can expect to hear their thoughts someday?" Helena asked jokingly, only to be surprised at seeing Dan nodding. 

"Once the bond is strong enough, you can actually talk to each other, but that's usually not for at least a year. In both your cases, it will probably be longer as you have school to go to, but that's a story for another time. Ms. Snape. It's your turn." He said, looking at the girl. Remembering what Cate had said, Helena closed her eyes. She walked through a small door that led to a bit of ground behind the shop and Cate and Dan shared a shocked look with each other as they followed. They were only keeping one animal here and it was a very special one.

Most of the ground was an small pasture with a fence around it, leaving only enough room to walk around it. A small stable had been built at the back of it and Helena could feel several spells hiding it from view. "Why are you hiding this?" She asked. "Because a very special creature temporarily lives here after we rescued it and we don't want anyone with the wrong intentions to steal it." Dan answered in a serious tone. 

Severus was about to ask what they were keeping here, when they heard a whinny coming from the stable and a foal slowly stepping out of it. It's fur was grey in colour and it was clearly trembling in fear. It was strangely shaped on the shoulders and back with almost feather like markings on its fur at the sides. Wordlessly, Cate opened the door of the fence and told Helena to get in with a tilt of her head. 

Helena slowly walked forwards, trying not to spook the animal. While it was a beautiful foal, she didn't really see the need to hide it. "Hello there. My name is Helena and I think that my magic is calling out to you." She said gently. The foal snorted as it stopped walking and refused to come closer, golden eyes almost daring Helena to further cross the distance. Thinking for a second, Helena did something completely different by sitting down on the ground and patiently waiting for the foal to make the next step. Everyone was watching with baited breath. 

Very slowly, the foal started to walk closer again and Helena carefully reached out. The foal sniffed her fingers, before gently pushing its nose against her hand and they both felt a connection between them. Helena immediately smiled. "Hello there. It's so nice to meet you." She said gently. The foal let out another whinny, before moving something else and everyone stared, except for Dan and Cate. 

"Oh, now I understand the need for secrecy." Helena muttered as she looked at the grey wings on either side of the foal's body. A Pegasus. Her familiar was a Pegasus. "Of course, you get a Pegasus, Lena." Harry said, before smiling at his Occamy to show that he didn't mean anything with that. Helena smiled back at him, before carefully patting the neck of her familiar. The foal let out a happy whinny and pushed its head against Helena's chest. 

After a while, Helena got up and started to walk out of the pasture, the foal following her every step. "Well, I can honestly say that I didn't see this coming. We were actually going to return her to a hidden island in Greece where she belongs, but I guess that's not happening now." Cate said as she stared at the two of them. As if knowing that they were talking about her leaving and she probably did, the foal pressed herself against Helena's side. "It's okay. You're not going anywhere. I promise." She said, gently stroking her mane to calm her down.

"I thought that the Pegasus were extinct." Remus whispered. "That's what the magical government of Greece has told the world, yes. So many wizards tried to capture a Pegasus for their own need, so the Greek Minister of Magic decided to hide all the remaining creatures on an island and tell the world that they had gone extinct. While that's not true as you can see, there aren't that many left." Dan explained. 

Everyone nodded in understanding. That made a lot of sense. Harry had kneeled in front of Helena's familiar in the meantime. "Hi there. I'm Harry, Helena's brother. This is our father Severus and our uncles Sirius and Remus. The latter two are a bit weird, but they mean no harm." He told the foal, ignoring the glares that Sirius and Remus gave him. Cate had walked in to prepare things for them to take home. 

She walked back outside with a magical terrarium, a few little boxes with insects and a book over the Occamy for Harry and a book about Pegasus and several brushes for Helena. She told the latter that if she ever wanted to ride her familiar in a few years, she would have to contact the goblins and they would create a special saddle and bridle. "Well, I guess that we have to finish our shopping another time." Severus muttered while looking at the Occamy and Pegasus. "How are we going to get them home?" Helena asked, looking at her familiar.

Dan and Cate quickly managed to create a special, carry big carrier for the Pegasus and after some patient, gentle encouragement from Helena, the foal stepped inside and Cate closed the door behind her. It would protect the foal from the dizzying effects of apparating. Thanking them for everything, the family disappeared, Severus holding onto the carrier and taking it with him.

Arriving in the garden of the Manor, the foal was quickly let out. She looked at her new surroundings in curiosity. A cold wind made Harry's familiar hide itself in his sleeve and at seeing this, Helena quickly called and ordered the house-elves to create a warm stable for her familiar. It was done in a few minutes and the foal happily went inside. "What are you going to call them?" Sirius finally asked. 

Harry looked at his familiar. Dan had told him that it was a Male and that it would be very protective, willing to fight for him. "Cayden. It means "warrior."" He said and the adults nodded. "What about you Helena?" Severus asked, looking at his daughter. Helena looked at the little foal. While its fur was grey now, it would eventually become a beautiful golden colour as the sun that announced the dawn. "Aurora. Her name is Aurora." She said

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah.... talk about a way bigger chapter than expected. But on the other hand, they found their familiars, everybody. 
> 
> Does anyone know who the shopkeepers were. I mean, Dan was pretty obvious, but who do you think Cate is?
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	13. Christmas

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Over the next few days, Harry and Helena understandably spent a lot of time with their new familiars. It quickly became a common sight to see Harry playing with Cayden and to find Helena in the stables with Aurora, either brushing her fur or just spending time with her. Sirius once snapped a picture of her sitting against the wall of the stable with her eyes closed. Aurora was sleeping with her head lying on Helena's left leg.

Helena's eyes quickly opened at hearing the sound of the camera going off and she glared at the immature man. "Shut up." She muttered, stroking Aurora's head. Sirius just grinned at her, before quickly walking away. Helena looked down at her Pegasus and smiled as she moved her head in her sleep. Considering that Pegasus, like horses, didn't sleep like this unless they felt completely safe, it showed how much Aurora trusted her already. Athena had met her too and both owl and Pegasus seemed to get along just fine.

It actually became quite a common thing to see them flying around the garden together in the cold winter mornings before Athena went to sleep after a very visi night of hunting. It seemed that Athena had already taught the Pegasus that she was only invisible to muggle eyes until a certain height where the wards ended as she never went any higher than just below the ward's edge. 

A day before Christmas, Lucius came by to tell them of the Wizengamot meeting. They had once again managed to pass some of their laws, including a very special one. Lucius sent a quick wink towards the twins and they immediately had to hide their grins. Severus saw this and frowned slightly, but he knew that his children would not say anything about it. He would find out eventually. 

The next day, Sirius tried once again to wake up Helena in his dog form, only to get water squirted in his face from the already awake girl. He yelped and quickly ran out of the room, Helena's laughter following him. "Bested by a girl, Padfoot? You should know better." Remus said with a laugh and the dog glared at him. "Oh no. Don't you da-" Remus started, before the dog jumped on him and bowled him over, licking him all over. "Alright, alright. I love you too. Now, get off. If I want a kiss from you, it would be from your other form." The werewolf continued.

Sirius got off him and turned back into a human with a shit-eating grin on his face. "Like this?" He asked, before kissing him. The twins had actually managed to get them together, but not without advice from the Weasley twins and help from Severus and Narcissa. They simply pulled the old "lock them into a closet until they confess" trick. The adults had stunned them and brought them into the closet, quickly closing the door behind them

It had taken a while, before they had finally confessed their true feelings as they had both been afraid that the other wasn't interested. The lock had clicked open and Sirius and tennis had immediately come across two smug children. "You really need to learn how to send subtle looks." Harry had said when they had asked how they had known that the men had feelings for each other. 

"Guys, really?" They heard Helena ask and they broke apart to see her looking at them with an unamused look on her face. "If you didn't want to see this, you shouldn't have brought us together. You reap what you sow, my dear Helena." Sirius told her with a smug grin, before kissing Remus again. "Newspaper's here." They heard Harry call from downstairs and Helena walked down the stairs with a roll of her eyes. Harry was waiting for her with a big grin on his face and his finger pointing towards a certain article. 

Helena smiled as well after reading the title, before hearing Sirius and Remus already coming down the stairs and silently ordering Harry to hide the newspaper from them, which he immediately did. "Presents!" She called loudly to distract them and quickly ran inside the room with her brother. Sharing a slightly confused look between the two of them, their godfathers simply followed them.

Like last year, there was a big pile of presents waiting for them. Severus had already been waiting for them and gave Helena a hug. "Merry Christmas, my little goddess." He whispered and Helena smiled, hugging him even tighter. "Thank you, daddy. Merry Christmas." She said, burying her face in his chest. Severus gave her a kiss on the top of her head, before slowly letting go and nudging her towards the pile. 

The twins got quite a lot of presents from their friends. They got books about the new subjects from Draco and Neville as well as several kinds of candy. They got some things for their brooms from Sirius and Remus, even if they hadn't used their brooms a lot yet to be honest, pranking supplies from the Weasley twins and they got a book about their favourite subjects and new clothes from Severus.

The twins had gifts for their family as well, ranging from genuine to joking. They got Sirius a book about what had happened in the Wizengamot in the past decade as the man was planning to join it again during the summer with the approval of his mind healer. They also got him dog biscuits and smiled at seeing his unamused look. They got Severus some rare potion ingredients and cufflinks in the shape of an Occamy and a Pegasus. It was when it was Remus' turn when things got interesting. 

They got him a couple of books, but nothing interesting. That was until Harry pulled the newspaper from behind his back and gave it to Remus after he had refused to give it to him before. "Page 2. Government." Was all that he said and the werewolf obeyed. His eyes widened at reading the headline of one of the articles. _"Protection law Magical Creatures approved."_ He read out loud. 

"What does that mean?" Sirius asked in confusion, not really understanding. "It means that if a magical creature, say a werewolf or a vampire, can prove that he or she will not harm another witch or wizard, he or she can not not be persecuted, will be able to get a job, etc." Helena explained and the shocked look that slowly turned to joy on the faces of their godfathers was the best Christmas present of all. 

Helena gave Athena a big, fat rat and some treats for her to eat and got an affectionate nip in return. She gave Aurora a magical golden carrot that was the pegasus absolute favourite snack according to the book that Cate had given her. Aurora have her a happy neigh in answer and pushed her head against her chest in gratitude. "Don't get used to it. It's a special day today." Helena warned her with a smile as she scratched her familiar behind her ears and Aurora neighed again in response. 

Harry gave both Hedwig and Cayden very big rats for them to eat and both animals were very happy with them. Like Athena and Aurora, the two got along rather decently. There was a small hiccup with a jealous Hedwig, but that was resolved quite quickly. For the rest of the day, the twins just spent time with the people that they cared about. For both the twins, it was the best Christmas ever. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to speed things up a bit starting with the next chapter. 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	14. Going back to school

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Soon after Christmas, Severus had to go back to Hogwarts to prepare for the new semester. Instead of going to Narcissa and Lucius like last time, Harry and Helena stayed in Peverell Manor. Two days before they had to leave, Harry found Helena petting Aurora with a sombre look on her face. "You're lucky, you know? Your familiar can change size and hide in plain sight. I can't exactly take a pegasus with me." She said.

Harry quickly sat down next to her and scratched Aurora behind her ears as the growing foal instantly walked towards him for more pets. "Ah, don't worry about it, Lena. Before you know it, we'll be back for summer." He said. Little did they know that Sirius had actually heard them talk and an idea had slowly formed into his head. He quickly ran to Remus and told the werewolf about his idea. Remus agreed that it was worth a try and they quickly went to work. They only had a couple of days left after all, so they had no time to waste. 

On the morning that they had to go back to school, Helena went outside to the garden to say goodbye to Aurora, but she was nowhere to be found. "Where's Aurora?" She asked as she ran back inside. Sirius gave her a thoughtful look as he put a small box in her trunk after having helped getting Cayden's terrarium in Harry's magic bag "She was still in her stable during the last time that I saw her, but that was last night." He said, before looking at his watch. 

"It's almost time. I'm sorry, Helena, but you have to go. I'll look for Aurora." He said. Only Remus would go with the twins, so that no one knew that Sirius was living with them. Helena let out a reluctant sigh, before agreeing. Remus brought them to the platform and they quickly chose a compartment. Granger and the Weasleys had stayed behind during the holiday, so they wouldn't bother them now. 

Padma and Luna joined them soon enough and the latter immediately turned towards Helena. "You may want to open the box that the dogstar has given you, your highness." She said. Helena gave her a frown, before getting her trunk and opening it, taking the box out of it and putting it on the ground. She opened it and something small shot out of it with a happy neigh: Aurora. The miniature Pegasus quickly nuzzled a relieved Helena's face. "Is that a Pegasus?" Padma asked with wide eyes. Knowing that her friend loved to gossip, Helena thought of a lie.

"It's something that Sirius gave me as a Christmas gift after I jokingly told him that I wanted a horse. He and dad agreed that if I can take care of this little girl here for the next few years, I will get an actual horse." She said as Aurora landed on her shoulder, Harry immediately nodding in agreement. Padma made a noise of understanding as she cooed over the miniature winged horse.

Aurora pressed herself against Helena's neck at seeing the stranger. "She's very shy." The witch said in a apologetic tone. "Oh that's alright. So she has an actual personality and isn't just a toy that follows you?" Padma asked and Helena shook her head. "She's almost like a real animal, only then miniature." She explained, before hissing as Aurora grabbed a bit of her hair with her mouth and tugged. 

Padma chuckled at seeing it. "She clearly takes offence to that." She laughed and Helena smiled, before picking up a letter that was taped to the outside of the box. In the letter, Sirius explained that the spell wouldn't hurt Aurora and if she said a certain word, the Pegasus would grow back to her original size. Sirius also said that the house-elves would keep Aurora well-fed and hydrated while Helena was in class. The box was enchanted to keep her safe and would keep itself clean. Helena shook her head at her brother's sneaky godfather. 

Harry showed the girls Cayden, pretending that it was a toy as well. Cayden hissed in indignation at being called a toy, but Harry gave him a few insects to mollify him. Before they knew it, they were arriving at Hogwarts. Once they had arrived at the castle with the carriages, Helena moved her hair a bit to hide the tiny Pegasus a bit more. She was lucky that her school outfit was grey as well, so Aurora didn't stand out much. 

Cayden had gone back into his terrarium, but Aurora didn't want to leave just yet. Not many people noticed the resting Pegasus, but if they did, Helena quickly gave them the same story as Padma and they quickly accepted it. Of course, Dumbledore wanted to see them after the feast and they went up once it was over, Helena giving Aurora to Luna to look after reassuring her familiar that the blonde girl was a friend.

Dumbledore wanted to know how they had found staying with Sirius. "It was nice. I guess that his house can feel like home one day, but not now." Harry said, Helena and Severus trying to hide their smiles as they knew that they had been home. Dumbledore beamed at him. Sirius had still refused to answer his letters, but at least, he had started to make a connection between him and the twins. He heard rumours that Sirius was going to take his seat back and he needed to talk to the man to make sure that he would stay with the light.

Filius kept the conversation short, seeing that the twins were tired. They were allowed to go and all breathed a sigh of relief. Helena hugged her father and brother, before following professor Flitwick to the Ravenclaw tower. Entering, they found a chaotic room and Helena perked up at hearing a distressed neigh. As if sensing her, a grey blur shot through the sky and buried itself in her chest "It's okay. I'm here. It's okay." The witch whispered, stroking her scared familiar.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?" Professor Flitwick demanded to know and Padma stepped forwards. "Professor, Helena got the Pegasus as a Christmas present and gave it to Luna to look after it while she had to go to the headmaster. When we got here, Cho saw the Pegasus and demanded to have it. We tried to tell her that it was Helena's, but she didn't listen and tried to take it." She explained. Professor Flitwick looked at Cho as the girl protested.

"That's not true, professor. I just wanted to see the toy from up close, but Lovegood didn't let me." The Chinese girl said, but all of the other students supported Padma's side of the story, saying that she had tried to take Aurora for herself. Professor Flitwick took ten points from Ravenclaw and assigned Cho two weeks of detention for trying to steal and lying to a professor. When Cho protested that it wasn't fair and that she didn't do anything wrong, she got another week added. After making sure that everything was calm again, the tiny professor left.

Helena went to her dorm with her still trembling familiar. Padma quickly followed them. "I'm really sorry. I tried to keep her from touching her." She said and Helena smiled at her. "It's okay." She said as she put Aurora in her box and changed. Padma and the other girls went to bed as well and once the lights were out, Helena felt a small weight on her pillow as Aurora flew out of her box and landed next to her head, lying down and falling asleep as well.

The story that Helena had a what people thought was a animated Pegasus toy, quickly spread and many wanted to see it. Helena always refused to show them Aurora, stating that she was just a toy and that not everyone had to see each other's toys. Many students grumbled, but left her alone. Helena apologised countless times to her familiar for calling her a toy, but Aurora always forgave her, understanding that it was to protect her. 

A particular incident involved Granger and Weasley during breakfast. Aurora was lying next to Helena's plate, when the two arrived and Granger suddenly tried to grab the pegasus. Aurora flew out of her grasp with a distressed neigh and quickly landed on Helena's extended hand. "What do you think you're doing?!" She hissed as she pulled Aurora closer to her, cupping her free hand around her protectively. "I just wanted to see her from up close." Granger defended herself. "Then you could've asked politely, not grab her out of nowhere." Helena hissed.

Granger and Weasley grumbled an apology, before quickly fleeing when they saw that Severus was about to get up. The teachers quickly learned about Aurora as well, but only Filius knew that it was actually a real Pegasus that accompanied Helena. During classes, Aurora was usually found in her magical box that was turned into a stable on the inside, the house-elves making sure that she was taken care of. 

While most people who knew about Cayden thought that he was in his terrarium most of the time, he was actually with Harry more than that they thought. Being able to shrink to the size of a little worm really came in handy as the Occamy hid himself underneath Harry's clothing. One thing that always told Helena if Cayden was with Harry or not, was Harry shuddering out of nowhere as Cayden moving tickled him

Lockhart's replacement was actually really good. Because it was Amelia's fault that they didn't have a teacher anymore, she had allowed one of her aurors to teach the students for the last few months. Kingsley Shacklebolt was a black, stern looking man, but he was fair and he did his best to make sure that they were caught up as much as possible after having such an idiot for a teacher. Several weeks into the new year, Helena was sneaking towards Myrtle's lavatory after Helena Ravenclaw had warned her that something was wrong.

The ghost had been warned herself by Myrtle. She heard Filch curse about water on the ground, before storming off. Turning the corner, she saw that the entire floor was covered with water. Quickly walking towards the lavatory, she went in and Myrtle immediately pointed her towards a book lying in front of the toilet. It was the dairy. At seeing it, only one thing went through Helena's mind.

_'Shit.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has officially become the biggest story in the series. I think two more chapters, maybe three. 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	15. Getting the plan back on track

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Both Severus and Harry cursed at seeing Helena return with the diary. Their entire plan relied on Ginny using the diary, so that they could remain blameless and just enjoy a mostly peaceful year. The horcrux inside the diary told them that Ginny had become suspicious as there were gaps in her memory at the same time of the attack and started to realise that she was the one behind the attacks. 

"Hmm, seems like the youngest Weasley has some kind of brains. Wouldn't have thought it of her." Helena commented, before they started to plan on how to continue the plan by either giving the diary back to Ginny or try to continue it on their own. During the next few weeks, Harry and Helena tried to find the right moment to give it back to her, but no such moment came. The biggest surprise came when the Mediwitch of Hogwarts, Poppy Pomfrey, revealed that she knew that the petrified Colin was fake when the twins visited the hospital wing. 

The witch had been a big believer in Dumbledore once, before seeing the state of the twins when they had first arrived at Hogwarts and hearing about the old man's repeated attempts to control them. She had lost all respect for him after that and the only reason that she stayed was that the students needed her. She told them that once the Mandrakes were ready, they should tell the real Colin to use the Floo in her office to keep up the ruse.

They smiled and thanked her, before leaving. During the Easter holiday, they got a list of electives to choose for the next year. This unfortunately meant another meeting with Granger and Weasley. "Harry, mate. Which electives are you choosing? Let's choose the same ones so that we can help each other. Helena can join too and check our homework with Hermione." Ron said loudly, wrapping his arm around Harry's shoulder.

The boy immediately stiffened and a threatening hiss was heard as Cayden popped his head from Harry's sleeve and hissed at the boy. Ron immediately pulled his arm back so fast that he fell backwards. "What's that?!" He shouted, catching a lot of attention of the other people in the Great Hall, Severus quickly standing up and walking towards them. "This is Cayden. Like Helena has her Pegasus toy, I have this one." Harry lied. Hermione seemed fascinated as she tried to touch Cayden, who immediately snapped at her and she pulled her arm back. 

They unfortunately didn't deter her. "That's is an Occamy, isn't it? Where did you get it? Was it expensive? Where can I get one? Can you talk to it?" She asked in rapid-fire, neither she nor Weasley noticing Severus standing behind them, waiting for the inevitable screw-up. "I got it from Sirius. Don't know how expensive. It's custom-made and I can actually." Harry said, only partly lying. 

He would be able to talk to Cayden once their bond was strong enough. "But it's a snake! Talking to a snake is evil!" Weasley shouted and Harry flinched just a tiny bit, before glaring at him. "It's an Occamy, not a snake. Didn't you listen?" He asked sarcastically. Weasley didn't listen and immediately started to rant about how Harry had to be evil and behind the Chamber of Secrets opening, actually being partly right, when Severus cleared his throat. 

Weasley stopped mid-sentence and turned to see Severus looking down on him. The man gave him two weeks of detention and 50 point loss for harassing and insulting another student. Professor Mcgonagall had arrived in the meantime and assigned Weasley another week of detention and 25 point loss for the same thing and trying to start a fight. Granger wisely pulled Weasley away before he could make it worse. Harry thanked his father and professor and they both smiled at him, before leaving. Severus squeezed his shoulder before going back

Now that they were gone, Harry, Draco, Neville, Padma and Helena could choose their electives in peace. Draco, Harry and Helena chose politics, the twins choosing Wizarding Culture with it. Besides those two, Helena chose study of the Ancient Runes and Harry chose Arithmancy. It would be a tight fit next year, but they felt that they could manage and if not, they would drop the last electives. Neville and Padma took care of magical creatures and Divination. 

It took another few weeks, before they managed to make Ginny see that they had the diary. Harry pretended to write in it and "accidentally" dropped it when he left to go to his next class. A watching Severus saw Ginny grab the diary and run off. The plan was back on track. In those few weeks, Granger had completely run through Helena's patience by insisting that they should meet up over the summer to discuss their new electives. 

Helena had finally enough after asking her to go away several times and had snapped at her. Granger had gone running towards Dumbledore and he had assigned the girl a detention with Filch, but professor Flitwick managed to make sure that she had to spent detention with him instead. During the "detention," Helena just discussed several pranks with Fred and George, who happened to have detention as well, while professor Flitwick pretended not to hear anything. Once she was walking out, Helena had an idea for what to do next with Halina. 

Another few weeks later, the whole school was in a state of panic after Hermione Granger and another girl named Penelope Clearwater were found petrified. The second girl had been a complete accident and both Harry and Helena felt really guilty. They had planted hints around Granger to make her figure out what the monster roaming the school was and apparently, she had been using the other girl's mirror to look around corners. 

One indirect look into Halina's unprotected eyes and voila! The attack had both a good and a bad outcome. The good one was that Dumbledore was temporarily removed from Hogwarts and Lucius used this time to get some of the school board on their side. The bad outcome was that Hagrid had been arrested as he was still suspected from the last time that the Chamber had been opened. 

While Hagrid was quite a blind follower of Dumbledore as the man had tried to help him, he was completely harmless and the twins actually liked him. They would have to find a way to get him back once everything was over. With Dumbledore gone, almost all students were really scared and nervous. Only the twins, some of their friends and most of the Slytherin students were reasonably relaxed, even if only a few knew exactly who were really behind the attacks. It was nice not to be called up towards the goat's office for some reason or another

Before they knew it, the end of the year was approaching and it was soon time for the confrontation. At realising that his sister was missing after hearing the teachers talk about it, Weasley found and dragged Harry and Helena towards Myrtle's lavatory after hearing some ghosts "coincidentally" talking about the hidden entrance there and actually managing to connect the dots.

He pretty much ordered Harry to open the door with Parseltongue and the other boy raised an eyebrow. "Oh, _now_ you suddenly want me to use my "evil" powers." He muttered with a roll of his eyes, before opening the door after a few fake tries. The three of them slid down the pipe, Helena going last after giving a small note to Aurora and ordering to give it to her father and the Pegasus flew off with the note in her mouth. 

Arriving at the chamber with the snake skin, Helena and Harry managed to separate themselves from Weasley a tiny bit, but enough for the next part of the plan. Severus had also come down here before and he had said that if they hit a certain part of the wall, the cave would collapse, but no one would get hurt. Pretending to see something, Helena hit that piece of wall and the ceiling collapsed, completely parting them from an unfortunately unharmed Weasley. Promising to go further and look for Ginny, the twins shared a handshake as they went on.

Arriving at the door to the Chamber, the twins shared a look. "Ready to "rescue" a Weasley?" Helena asked and Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, but I'm not ready for her to follow me even more next year after this." He muttered and Helena chuckled as Harry opened the door. Walking into the chamber, they saw a corporeal version of a fifteen year old Tom patiently waiting for them with Halina and an unconscious Ginny. "Ready?" He asked and the twins nodded

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think one more chapter after this, which means that I'll probably start the next story on Sunday and I honestly can't wait :D
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	16. One adventure ends and another begins

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise. 

What happened next was probably the most anti-climactic "fight" that Helena had ever had. At least last year, they pretended to put up a fight. This time, they just talked for a few minutes. Halina let out a few screeches and hisses and the twins let out screams as they pretended to run from her, knowing that it would echo back to Weasley. The phoenix Fawkes flew in with the sorting hat that revealed the sword of Gryffindor.

Unlike what Dumbledore had everyone believe, Fawkes wasn't his familiar. In fact, the bird hated him. Fawkes belonged to Hogwarts and had been there since the time of the founders. Like the ghosts and portraits, he couldn't do anything directly, but he could help the twins make the old goat's life difficult. With Halina's permission, they made a small cut in her side with the sword to cover the blade with her blood. Halina loudly screeched and hissed in what had to be the biggest overreaction they had ever seen, especially as Helena had already healed the cut.

It was actually hilarious to see such a big snake act like they had just killed her, including falling down on her back and lying still _"Drama queen."_ Harry hissed and Halina moved her eyes to glare at him. In the meantime, Helena had taken the diary and had put it in Harry's magical bag, getting an identical one out of it. Looking at Tom and getting a nod, Helena destroyed the fake diary and the horcrux let out a scream and disappeared, releasing Ginny from his spell.

The girl woke up and immediately started to thank Harry, completely ignoring the fact that Helena was there as well. Helena stood up and blocked the girl's view of Halina, sharing a eye-roll with the Basilisk. They finally left the Chamber and Helena blew the basilisk a kiss, before closing the door. Concentrating herself, she could hear Halina getting up for a few seconds, before getting out of range.

Weasley had managed to remove several rocks and using Fawkes and his incredible strength, they managed to get up the pipe and to professor Mcgonagall's office. Mr and Mrs. Weasley were already there and were relieved to see their daughter alright. Minerva both took and awarded points to Weasley, Harry and Helena for their courageous, but reckless deed. Even though they hadn't actually fought, the twins were still tired as it was the middle of the night or maybe early in the morning. They quickly exused themselves and went to their father's chambers.

Severus opened the door before they were there, having seen them coming on Harry's map. The twins ran to him and hugged him tightly. Severus kneeled down and held them just as tightly, kissing the top of their heads. "Thank Merlin that you are alright." He whispered, before standing up and letting them inside. Ever since last year, his chances had two extra rooms for the twins. They quickly changed and fell asleep after telling professor Flitwick where Helena was.

Unfortunately for them, with the danger seemingly gone as far as most people in the castle knew, Dumbledore returned to the school once again. At the very least, there was a good thing about the situation as Hagrid returned as well, a free man. Exams were cancelled because of the situation, but not many students were unhappy about it. Even Helena, the literal Ravenclaw of her family, wasn't bothered by it.

After everything that had happened and keeping secrets from her friends, she really didn't feel like studying and even more stress because of the exams. Colin returned to the school through Madam Pomfrey's Floo and was "revived" with the other victims. The boy ran towards the twins and gave them both the biggest hug that he could manage. "Thank you." He whispered and the twins smiled and hugged him back, before the boy ran off to ask professor Mcgonagall if he could repeat the year after summer. She told him that he could and that he could be resorted. 

As expected, Dumbledore called up the twins to his office and they reluctantly obeyed, Severus and professor Flitwick going with them as always. Dumbledore looked at them. "Harry, Helena. That was a very brave thing that you did by saving Ms. Weasley. Molly and Arthur wanted to invite you to their home during the summer and I really think that you should accept the invitation." He said. 

"No, thank you." The twins chorused after rolling their eyes. "It would be considered rude to deny it, my boy and girl." Dumbledore insisted and the twins rolled their eyes once again. When he saw that Dumbledore was going to insist once again, Severus interrupted. "Albus, enough! This is the fourth time that you tried to put _my_ children in a place where they don't want to be. If you keep this up, I'll remove them and place them in a different school." He threatened. 

Dumbledore was completely shocked. He couldn't let the twins go. He needed them to weaken Tom when he returned, so that he could finish him off once and for all and remain everyone's hero, getting the fame and fortune that he deserved. "And where would you take them, if I may ask?" He bluffed. "I'm sure that Beauxbatons would love to have Helena as their student and as you know, I'm old friends with the headmaster of Durmstrang. The only reason that I didn't do it after last year, was because they have friends here" Severus replied calmly and Dumbledore scowled. 

Harry and Helena shared a smug look as their father didn't rise to Dumbledore's bait and calmly answered the question that the old goat had asked him. Filius hid a smile as well, before speaking up as well. "I quite agree with Severus, Albus. Frankly, I'm getting sick and tired of your attempts to get your way with Harry and Helena. Severus is perfectly capable of taking care of them and he decides where the twins should go." He said. 

Dumbledore scowled for a minute, before changing the subject and getting the fake, destroyed diary out of the drawer of his desk. He vaguely talked about how it was a horcrux, something that the twins obviously already knew. They honestly had to fight the urge to fall asleep, just to irk him. Dumbledore finally let them go and they all let out a big sigh of relief once they were out of the office. 

A few days before the end of the year, Severus found Helena standing on top of the astronomy tower, leaning on the railing and staring out in the distance, absentmindedly petting the miniature Aurora. He silently joined her and leaned on the railing as well. "What's wrong?" He asked after a few seconds and Helena sighed. "I just miss Jade. She would've loved to help with this." Helena muttered and Severus wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer. "I'm sure she would." He said to try and cheer her up, ignoring the fact that Jade wouldn't be able to even see Hogwarts.

Father and daughter just stared out into the distance for several minutes, before finally going back. Severus kept an eye on his daughter for the rest of the day. While she hasn't mentioned her adopted daughter much in the past year, as weird as it was to say, he now realised that it was because she didn't want to remind herself of the girl that she had left behind. He also knew that Jade would never leave Helena's mind, just like Lily never left his

Several days later, it was time for the end-of-year feast. To everyone's surprise, Slytherin actually won the cup this year and when Dumbledore tried to give some last-minute points to Gryffindor, he suddenly found himself silenced by at least three teachers. "Don't act like a child, Albus." Minerva hissed, grabbing had enough of him trying to give Gryffindor the cup. If they didn't win it in the first place, then she didn't want to win it through cheating. In the morning after that, Helena, Harry and their friends were waiting on the platform for the Hogwarts Express.

Usually, the train was already there waiting for them, but not this time. The students quietly murmured about this, but there was no panic. Helena suddenly looked up and around as if she was sensing something. "What is it?" Harry asked. "I'm not sure. There's a different kind of magic in the air." Helena said, letting Aurora land on her hand. The Hogwarts Express finally arrived, but didn't stop at all.

Feeling the magic growing stronger, Helena grabbed her brother's hand as the wind picked up. Cayden showed himself from Harry's sleeve and hissed. Harry held onto him and his magic bag that contained Helena's book, Helena holding onto Aurora. The train zoomed past them and the landscape changed. When the train disappeared, they were standing in the middle of a forest and looked around in utter confusion. After a few seconds, Harry finally spoke up. 

"What just happened?" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Take a guess where the twins landed :)
> 
> I have to say that the next story is probably the most anticipated story for me to write and the last one that I have completely written out in my head. I honestly can't wait!
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	17. Next story is up

Hey guys.

The next story is up. It's called "the goddess and the prince." I didn't add the bashing tags to the story this time as it has only minor bashing, so just click on the "next work" link and you got it


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